


Since the Future

by bluestarwitch



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bottom Louis, Eventual Smut, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Niall has a cameo too, Time Travel, Top Harry, they are scientists but still idiots, they have a kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:27:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 48,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27762247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluestarwitch/pseuds/bluestarwitch
Summary: "It's done."The words were barely above a whisper when they left Harry's mouth, but they hit Louis with the force of a freight train. It was done. Holy fuck. They had created a time machine. And tomorrow, they were travelling to the future.a.k.a. Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles fuck with time, so time fucks with them.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 29
Kudos: 169
Collections: Bottom Louis Fic Fest 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> as for this fic, *michael scott voice* I knew exactly what to do. but in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.
> 
> There was negligible to no science involved in the making of this fic. If you're a science student, please forgive me. The time travel technology is kinda based on Marvel’s quantum realm one because I’m dumb and unoriginal. Don’t bother spending too many braincells on it. Just go with it, okay?
> 
> A big bunch of thanks to my lovely betas, [Leah](http://abrubag.tumblr.com), who’s so cool and smart, and [M](http://mercurial-madhouse.tumblr.com), without whose enthusiastic encouragement this fic wouldn't have been completed. And also to the mods who’ve worked so hard to organise this fest.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy :)

"It's done."

The words were barely above a whisper when they left Harry's mouth, but they hit Louis with the force of a freight train. It was done. The result of the efforts that hundreds of people had put in, the time that had been invested, the fortune and the resources that had been used, stood before them, shining in the bright lab light. They had created a time machine.

Louis let out a little laugh that bordered on being hysteric. "Yeah." 

It sounded almost crazy; _they had created a time machine_. Sounded like an idea for a novel an author from the nineteenth century had had under the influence at four in the morning. But then Louis remembered their years of hard work, countless breakdowns, and crazing hurdles... and it seemed a little less mental. 

And also because the said machine was right in front of them. 

Louis' hand found Harry's hip, and then he was tugging him to his side and wrapping his arm around Harry's waist. Harry draped his arm around Louis, squeezing his shoulder, and they stood there, admiring the Quantum SpaceTime Navigator (a.k.a. QuSTiN) with pride gleaming in their eyes.

A wide chrome arc was mounted on a raised, circular platform, between a pair of diametrically opposite points on the platform's circumference. There were multiple hemispherical emitters on the inner surface of the arc. Four short, cuboidal detectors also stood on the circumference of the raised stage. Bundles of wires ran from each of the detectors, connecting them to the ring of regulatory devices on the ground around the platform, and one thicker wire connected the whole setup to the power supply.

Holy fuck. They had created a time machine.

"Guys? Gonna stay here tonight or what?"

The warm, familiar voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Louis turned to find Vikram walking down the stairs to where they stood. He grinned at him, raising his free hand to beckon him to join their tiny huddle. 

"Hey Vicky," Harry greeted, a smile in his voice. 

When he reached Louis, Vikram clapped him on the back and placed his arm over Harry's. "Harry. I knew you two would be here." 

"Were you looking for us?" Harry asked him, as they all turned to stare at the scientific wonder.

"Uh, yeah. They're about to close the facility for the night."

Had it been that long?

"Guess we should head out, then," Harry suggested, to which Louis hummed noncommittally and Vikram murmured agreement under his breath.

None of them made a move to leave. 

Louis felt right at home standing there, with two of his friends on either side of him and probably his greatest achievement before his eyes. He felt accomplished as he had never before. This night was one of the best nights of his life, and that was a good thing, considering that there was a chance it would be his last. 

Because, tomorrow, humanity would be taking another giant leap. And Louis and Harry would be acting as the vessels.

Tomorrow, they were travelling to the future.

The thought sent a shiver down Louis' spine. It was all real. Everything that he had dreamt of since he was a kid, he had made all of it come true. The idea was still a little too big to fit into his head all at the same time.

For once, he didn't even try to. He was too tired and tipsy for that.

It was a launch night at the Hawking Laboratories for Modern Physics tonight. Not Louis' first, but definitely the most important one. He had been waiting for this night ever since their project started showing signs of success. Louis was proud of himself, of Harry, of every single person on their team, and tonight was about celebrating all of them. He'd spent an entire _hour_ fixing his outfit, finally settling on a crisp white shirt and his black suit with subtle sparkles, paired with classic black shoes. He ditched his glasses for the night. Deeming it good enough only after he had critiqued his reflection for some long moments, he'd headed out. He had promised to meet Harry before the event and he didn't want to keep him waiting.

Louis had hoped he looked good because Harry looked… God. Harry had opted for an all-black assemble ― trousers that hugged his long legs, a shirt that was buttoned up to his neck, and a gorgeous jacket with velvet binding on the lapels, that accentuated his broad shoulders and slim waist. And of course, because he was Harry and couldn't dress without flair, he had gone for shoes with a rainbow on each one. Louis had gone warm, half fond and half aroused, from head to toe when he had watched Harry climb out of his car, and had no idea how he stopped himself from swooning when Harry smiled at him across the lot, buttoning his jacket, looking too hot to handle. His pale skin shone against his dark attire like the Moon against the night sky and sweet Christ, the things Louis wanted to do at that moment.

Too bad Louis was best friend-zoned, too fucking bad.

He had turned his focus on the event at hand, pushing those stupid thoughts into the corners of his mind like he always did. Harry had joined him with a huge grin, and soon they'd lost themselves in the crowd of more than two hundred delegates, along with some media personnel. 

The visitor centre of the Laboratories had been transformed for the function. The building's exterior, constructed in the impressive form of a Mobius strip and made of huge glass panels, shone golden tonight with the landscape lighting installed all around. To an ignorant eye, it could even look like a UFO. Inside, they found a stage had been erected for the presentation, with numerous round tables in front of it, and a projector screen behind it. The two of them were, obviously, assigned seats front and centre. Blue and black seemed to be the theme colours of the high-end decorations. Several cameras were being set up, most likely for live-streaming the event. 

In an hour-long ceremony, their lab announced to the world that the first-ever time machine was ready, and to be tested on the morrow. Louis had straightened in his chair when everyone clapped at the end, unapologetically smug. He ignored Harry's amused snort.

Next in schedule was dinner, and then, the afterparty. Everybody was flocking around Louis and Harry, congratulating them with claps on the backs and firm handshakes. Occasionally, they would encounter fake smiles and jealous stares, but that only made Louis smugger. 

As great as it was, being the centre of attention and the topic of conversations everywhere, it hadn't taken long for him to grow bored. The process of meeting everyone was very repetitive; same questions, same answers, same best wishes. He'd been moseying about for a considerable amount of time, had met all the important people, so he'd guessed escaping for a bit wouldn't be considered rude. With a glass of champagne in hand, he'd left to search for his partner-in-crime in the assembled crowd.

It had taken him longer than he would've liked, his mini-mission hindered with guests eager to talk to him. At last, he had found him charming away a group which Louis identified as researchers from the optics lab. Louis had been smiling at the sight of him before he'd even realised it.

Giving no regard to the rest of the little huddle, he'd walked up to him, pressed a palm to his back and murmured in his ear, "Wanna get away for a bit?" 

Harry had turned to him, his mouth frozen mid-sentence. Louis had felt the eyes on him, but he hadn't cared. Neither had Harry because he'd smiled and nodded easily, then excused himself without an explanation.

They'd slipped away by a back door. The atmosphere outside had been much cooler, and Louis had gratefully filled his lungs with the fresh air that wasn't polluted with artificial fragrances. Harry had followed him out to the main road, where they'd started strolling without a destination in mind.

Between the two of them, there was always a lot to talk about, but the quiet had been a good change after the non-stop chatter of the party. Louis had looked around himself, taking in the campus for probably the last time. The abstract bronze statue of Hawking, the spot from where the unnamed gardener waved him hello every Monday morning. As apprehensive as he'd been when joining the lab here, it being a recent and less-famed establishment as compared to the other labs he had offers from, Louis was undeniably attached to it now. He'd spent the better part of the last seven years working here, and it was a huge part of him. _Gonna miss this place._

He'd smiled ruefully at his thoughts. They sounded like he was never coming back here. Of course, nothing was certain, but he was just trying to make peace with the possibility. Because, you know, you never know.

Eventually, they had begun talking, starting with little comments about the party, the guests and their reactions to the innovation. Louis had almost been able to pretend it was just another stroll with Harry after a hard day's work, had almost been able to ignore the waves of nerves washing over him every few minutes.

At one point, Harry had opened the buttons of his jacket and the top button of his shirt, along with loosening his posture. Louis had, very respectfully, only watched from the corner of his eye.

Somehow, but not surprisingly, they'd arrived at their building. Harry had pulled out his id and scanned it, letting them in. From here, there was only one place to go — the testing room for QuSTiN. They had roamed around the platform, checking the preparations for tomorrow and mindlessly fiddling with the equipment. Everything they had done and were about to do had dawned on them all of sudden, and they'd ended up just staring at their creation in awe.

That's where Vikram Malhotra had found them.

Louis blinked and came back to the present. Personally, he wouldn't mind spending his life in here, but they needed to leave.

"C'mon, then, gentlemen. Let's not keep them." He clapped them both on the backs to get them to move.

After ensuring everything was the way it should be, they headed up the stairs. He couldn't help the glance he threw to QuSTiN. The next time he'd see the machine, they'll actually be using it. Before he could fall down the intrusive thoughts again, he tore his gaze away and decided to talk about a lighter topic.

"Any developments with Emily tonight, Vicky?"

Two steps ahead, the older man sighed, shoulders slumping. "Not much, sadly. She was too busy with her stupid friends."

"A shame, mate. She looked lovely tonight." Louis did feel for him. Unrequited feelings sucked. He would know… kind of.

"Tell me about it, Tomlinson." Vikram turned off the lights and closed the door behind them.

Harry gave him the side-eye as they walked to the gates of the building. "Has someone else got their eye on her too?" 

"They'd better not," Vikram immediately added, pointedly staring at him, a failed attempt at a threat.

"Oh, shut it, both of you." Louis rolled his eyes, stalking out onto the main road. Just because he had more one-night stands than the average number did not mean that he was attracted to every other person, for fuck's sake. "I'm as interested in her as I'm in you, Malhotra. No offence."

His response was just a light chuckle. 

They started back the way they had come. Once again, silence dominated. He didn't mind. Recently, Louis had grown more and more grateful for the mere presence of some people, and right now he took a moment to just appreciate the company. It was definitely because of what loomed ahead. They hadn't even started with their experiment and it was already showing side effects.

When the parking lot of the visitor centre came into view, Vikram spoke up. "You guys ready for tomorrow, then?"

To be honest, Louis wasn't. He wasn't ready for tonight to end, because that would mean the start of tomorrow. And tomorrow had never been so unpredictable.

"I think it's one of those things that you can't really ever be ready for, you know?" Harry drawled out, frowning to himself. "But if you wanna do it, you just gotta... _do_ it." 

They paused at the gate.

"Still think it's scary, mate." Vikram nodded, then chuckled awkwardly. "But I don't need to tell you that, especially now. I just think that there could be consequences that we haven't even thought of. Pretty volatile things that we're playing with." 

From the very beginning, Vikram had had the exact same opinion on their project. Louis knew it was unchartered territory, but Vikram seemed illogically terrified. Of what, he didn't have a clue. Probably of the machine backfiring and sending them into the Mesozoic Era or a post-apocalyptic world where they'd have to fight to survive.

While Louis respected the man and appreciated his help with the whole thing, he was so done with his negativity. "Don't tell me you're basing this on fucking Hollywood movies, man."

"I'm not, Louis, I'm really not. But right now, we don't know what could happen any better than them, do we? Feels unfair to not even consider that outcome."

Louis was all for fairness, but did it even matter if they didn't take into account something as absurd as what the movies said? And anyway, if he got to see fucking dinosaurs before they ate him, he'd call the mission successful.

Never the one to back down, he was about to argue back when Vikram held up his hands in surrender. "You know what, lads, forget it. I just wanna wish you both good luck, yeah? See you tomorrow."

He accepted the hug Vikram offered, waited patiently as he hugged Harry too. Then, with a wave over his shoulder, Vikram began walking away. They watched him for a moment, before Louis nudged Harry and they started towards their own cars.

The walk across the parking space left him far more sober than he had been a few minutes ago. Words didn't seem enough to describe every thought and feeling bubbling in Louis' mind and body. He didn't agree with Vikram, but his words always left him feeling funny. Self doubting, almost.

Which was more of why he hated them. The time machine was something he was infinitely proud of. They had unravelled time, and he tingled with how powerful he felt. No one was taking that from him. No one was planting more unwanted thoughts in his head than he could handle. He had enough contradictory emotions to deal with already. Louis remembered every single moment of tonight like it was a distinct, noteworthy day, while simultaneously feeling like he'd just woken up this morning. Time seemed to be stretched out and rapidly contracting all at once, even though it was the only thing that never changed pace. 

Or maybe he was finally losing it for good.

Just as he was about to wish Harry a good night and part ways, Harry spoke up. "Lou."

When Louis glanced over at him, Harry spread his arms out, a small smile on his lips. Louis smiled back at him, stepping close and letting him wrap his long arms around his smaller body. Slowly, he wound his own arms about Harry's neck, allowing himself to sag into the embrace. They both sighed as one and Louis closed his eyes, wondering if Harry's brain was just as messy as his felt right now.

"Nervous?" Louis asked in a murmur, staring at the star-laden night sky. 

A beat passed. Then, "I'm scared."

"Why's that?" He started rubbing his back on instinct. "You said you won't let us die, right?"

That had happened when they had to decide what point in the future they'd be travelling to. It had turned into a week-long argument. Harry advocated for just a decade, while Louis wanted nothing less than a century. Initially, their colleagues had been invested in the discussion too, but soon lost interest when it turned into a downright dispute between the two of them.

"Literally nothing would've changed in just ten years, Harold." Louis had rolled his eyes, leaning on a table in the lunchroom.

"And that would work in our favour, Louis," Harry had countered from beside him. "It'll be easier to blend in, we wouldn't feel like fucking aliens—"

"We'd feel like time travellers."

" _Besides_ ," Harry had spoken over him loudly. "This is essentially a test run. If we make it back safely, we'll go wherever you want next time, okay? If we get stuck there, at least it'll be with people we know."

His voice had softened at the last sentence, and given Louis pause. There was a chance of something adverse happening, and it would be safer not to travel too far from their own time. Safer because, hopefully, they would still be able to pick up their lives from where they left them. The people they love would most likely be around, but only ten years older.

Unfortunately, Louis had thrown caution to the wind a long, long time ago.

"Wow, Styles. I'm loving the confidence you put in our world-changing invention," He'd spat, each word filled with sarcasm.

"Oh, please no, _I'm_ loving how confident _you_ are with something that's never been done before," Harry had responded with the same sugary sweet tone.

Bantering with Harry was fun. Arguing with Harry was not. Especially when he was — mostly — right.

Louis couldn't help it when a bit of petulance slipped in his tone and his next argument. "I'd rather see something mind-blowing and die afterwards than see nothing. And still die."

Harry had given him an odd look. "Don't be daft, Louis. We are not dying. I'm not letting us." 

In the end, Louis had let Harry have his way. Bought him a tea, their unspoken white-flag-slash-apology, and made him swear that their next trip would be to the twenty-third century.

The memory made Harry chuckle. He adjusted his arms for more comfort. "It's… I just realised we have so much life left to live. So much I’d planned to do. But now, it might be ten fucking years later. Or never. We don't know what's gonna happen and… the uncertainty, Lou. I'm scared."

Louis' brows furrowed. "Harry, if you're not letting us die, then I'm bringing us back, alright, love? Nothing can happen that we can't handle." He wasn't sure how true his words would turn out to be, but he swore he'd do his utmost. He pulled back enough to cup Harry's face, his fingertips brushing the cool skin of his ear. "You know no one's forcing you to do this, right? I only want you to come if you're a hundred per cent sure." _Only if you trust me._

"I didn't come all the way with you to back out now." Harry shook his head, lips curved upwards. "But damn it, Lou. How do you always make me do insanely risky things like this?" 

"Just one of my many talents." He winked, squishing his cheeks once before stepping away. Wrapping a loose arm around Harry's waist, he started leading them to their cars. Though he never turned it down, close contact with Harry left him giddy. He needed a distraction. "Tell me something that you had planned for later?" 

Harry frowned at the ground while he thought. "Gemma's birthday is coming up. She's planning a family vacation in Italy, did I tell you?"

"No, you didn't. But you deserve a vacation, H, and some family time. Hope you guys have fun."

"You might be coming with, you know." Harry threw him a smile.

"Yeah?" Louis grinned, instantly cataloguing it as something happy and non-life-threatening to look forward to. 

Harry hummed. "If she's bringing her boyfriend, I'm bringing you."

Louis ignored the implication that he was something equivalent to a boyfriend to Harry. He knew Harry meant that he was basically family, and he let that thought warm his heart.

"Been a while since I last saw her. Can't wait to meet my favourite Styles."

Harry pointed a finger at him warningly, but he was grinning too. "I'm only taking you if you promise to be on my side, you twat."

"We'll see about that, Harold." He grabbed the finger pointed at him and pulled him in for another, shorter hug. "Go and get your beauty sleep now."

The other man patted his back a couple of times before pulling away. "G'night, Lou. Take care."

"Night, H."

Driving home, Louis' mind was occupied with a certain space encyclopedia. He hadn't thought about it for years now, but the details of it were as clear in his memory as it had been in eight-year-old Louis'. The hardcover book had always seemed huge in his then tiny hands, filled with colourful illustrations and fascinating information on the stars and the planets. He had received it as a birthday gift, and it hadn't taken him long to become obsessed with the working of the universe. In that book, he'd found the purpose of his life.

He wondered if it was hidden somewhere in his childhood bedroom. _Wonder if they ever make a documentary on us, whether or not they'd include it._

It was almost midnight when Louis pulled into his driveway. His eyes were tired and his legs were aching slightly, but his brain was in overdrive.

He unlocked his house and headed for his bedroom, knowing sleep wouldn't come easy. Normally, in situations like this, he'd just work on a paper or a project until his brain was as tired as his body. But he couldn't do that today. Tomorrow was the big day — it was equal parts the reason he needed to sleep and the reason he couldn't. Besides, it wasn't interesting laws and equations filling his mind right now. It was… sentiments.

Louis had struggled with sentiments while kids in his class struggled with math. He couldn't pinpoint where it started, but he guessed that it might have been when his mother was getting divorced for the first time, and no one was available for Louis to rant to. The wish to not burden her with his problems had turned into a nasty habit of internalising his heart's thoughts. He hadn't outgrown it, and dare he say it had worsened.

In the bedroom, he quickly changed into something loose and comfortable. Washed his face in an attempt to soothe his eyes and rid of some perspiration. Stared at himself in the mirror for a minute. 

Not to mention sentiments were confusing as hell. What Louis wanted and what he had to do were, more often than not, opposite things. He'd wanted his stepdad — the only dad he had known — to stay, but his mom said they weren't happy with each other; so he had had to let go, for his mom to be happy. He hadn't wanted to leave home and go to America, but he had to, for pursuing higher studies. Why couldn't what Louis wanted happen, or why couldn't Louis want what was happening?

One day, in science, he'd learned that it was all chemicals. Dopamine and serotonin and noradrenaline. It became easier to control himself after that, easier to ignore how he was feeling. It helped him keep a clear head, and see things without the curtain of emotions. These tiny amounts of hormones couldn't dictate his life. He only heeded his heart enough to keep it alive. And tonight, it was loudly crying for acknowledgement.

He walked back to the main door. Leaning against the wood, he gazed around his house, at the life he'd built. At everything he’d lose if his worst fears came true.

It was a three-bedroom bungalow in Chiswick. He had managed to buy it within a year of working at the Hawking labs, marking the start of his life as a real adult. The door he leant on was heavy mahogany, and opened to a small hallway where a shoe cabinet stood against the left wall and a painting hung on the right one. 

A couple of steps in and to the right, was the living room. There was an electric fireplace under the big telly on the far wall, around which the couches and chairs were arranged. White and grey were the prominent colours, not just in the living room but the entire home. Lottie had scrunched her nose at his choice and his mum had shaken her head, but he liked the minimalistic and sleek feel of them. The decoration was sparse, mostly because Louis couldn't be arsed to care. Whatever ornaments were there, they had either been gifts or what his mum had forced him to buy 'to add life to the house'. He didn't know whether it worked or not, considering he was the only living thing in the house most of the time.

He ran his hand on the beige leather of the couch Harry had helped him pick as he walked to the shelf above the fireplace. Various photo frames sat on it, big and small, fancy and plain, photos of him with all the important people in his life.

Louis traced the edge of the first frame, which held a picture of him with the youngest twins from when they were two. They were his favourite people in their little clan, and he was theirs. The one next to it was of him and his four sisters, the girls surrounding him while they all flipped off the camera. Some might say that he’d spoiled them, but he loved them like that. Then there was a picture of him sitting between his beautiful mom and Dan, back home on Christmas. Even as old as he was now, he had no shame admitting that he was a momma's boy. She was his rock, the first to earn the title of his best friend. A lump formed in his throat, and he forced himself away before the waterworks started. He also had one photo of his group of friends from school and college, on a night out. A lot of them had lost touch, busy in their own lives, but the time spent with them was incredibly special to him.

The last one was from Harry and his convocation ceremony. Both of them were in their black gowns, their caps askew on their heads. Harry had his mouth stretched into a toothy grin, while Louis’ eyes crinkled shut with his wide smile. They had one arm wrapped around each other, and their degrees in the other. He picked up the photograph and ran his thumb over Harry's face.

Harry Edward Styles. Louis had met the guy in the university. He was one of the smartest people in his classes, Louis was, and the only real competition he was given was this cherub of a boy with stupid curls. Being the ambitious bastard he was at eighteen, he wanted to be the best, to be on top. Harry Styles was a threat; so Louis had immediately taken an irrational disliking towards him, which naturally turned mutual. And because fate's a bitch like that, they were put together for a project in the very first semester.

The memories never failed to make Louis smile. Even loathing was a weak word for what their relationship was at that time. Internally, Louis had been almost intimidated by just how cool the guy was, while externally, things had come to the point that neither could stand being in the other's presence, much less work together. One day, due to some stupid reason, Louis had snapped and they had a big argument. He remembered Harry threatening to drop the project, remembered telling him _I don't need you anyway_.

Louis had gone to bed angry the first time that night. But by morning, all he could feel was guilt for having gone too far, and fear of losing a considerable amount of credits over a childish squabble. He'd gone to their usual meeting spot with two cups of tea in hand, hoping Harry would appreciate it as a fellow Brit, hoping he'd show up even though he had said otherwise the day before.

Harry did show up. With two cups of tea balanced in one huge hand. They couldn't help but laugh when they saw one another, forgave and were forgiven. Louis didn't immediately start liking him, but he bit his tongue enough to make it work between them, for his grades' sake.

By the end of the project, they had clicked. By the end of the year, they were joined at the hip. 

Now, Louis couldn't imagine his life without Harry. In the last thirteen years, their bond had only strengthened. Theirs was like the lifelong friendships in movies and Louis counted himself incredibly lucky to have found it. 

Only there was a chance he could ruin it all.

Louis prided himself on knowing how things worked, to the very last details. The galaxies, his telly, gravity, his car, space-time, his own body. Well, most of his body. Sometimes, especially when he was around Harry, his body buzzed. His chest grew warm, his fingertips tingled and his lips turned into a smile. Every time Harry gave him one of those intense looks like Louis was the only other person in the world, he couldn't help but forget everything he'd ever known. At times he felt like he could never be close enough to Harry, but when he got the chance to, he lost all control on himself. It was kind of ridiculous how easily and how much this boy could affect him. Whatever it was, it was definitely not platonic, and Louis was terrified of that.

With a sigh, he placed the frame back in its rightful place. He was not about to fall down that rabbit hole with tomorrow's anticipation hanging over him. It was kind of ironic that the only solace he had was that he'd have Harry by his side. 

He turned away and walked alongside the windows that looked out to the small front porch. The open kitchen was right behind the living room. It was not a part of the house that he spent much time in but still managed to keep elegant. He grabbed a water bottle from there before heading into the hallway and deeper into the house.

At one end of the hallway was the guest bedroom, which was only ever used by his family when they visited. He skipped it, since it was mostly untouched, and peeked into the second bedroom which had been converted into a study-slash-home office for Louis. He'd taken it upon himself to design the space, and it was his favourite one in the house. The books that educated and inspired him were arranged in shelves running from the floor to the ceiling, interspersed with his trophies and awards. His table there was always a mess of incomplete research papers and food crumbs. There was a window seat that worked as a reading nook, and a life-sized Iron Man model near the opposite wall. He liked to think that it gave a pretty good look into his life, and the kind of person he was.

His master bedroom was situated at the other end of the hallway. There was a French window on the right, which led to the back garden. His bathroom and walk-in closet were on the left. The king size bed was pushed to the far wall, clean white sheets spread invitingly on it.

A wooden frame sitting on the bedside table held his favourite family photo. He picked it up and laid on the bed, holding it up to stare at the picture. It had been taken at Jay's wedding, a very beautiful and memorable day. All of them were beaming widely at the camera, happiness glowing on every face. Louis missed them terribly, even though he had talked to all of them this morning. It was the fear of not getting to see them again that made him greedy for more time with them. Maybe he'd call them again tomorrow before leaving for the lab. He hoped that wouldn't be the last time he'd get to do it.

But if he were to die tomorrow, there wouldn’t be much he’d regret. He’d lived to the fullest, and had almost everything anyone could ever need. Almost.

Louis let the frame fall against his chest as he clicked off the lamp. With his brain now quiet and his heart sated, he closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly. 

The alarm pulled him out from a deep slumber.

Louis grunted a little as he shut it, snuggling into his pillow for a moment. It'd be so easy to slip back into his dreams, but his body was waking up, needing him to empty his bladder. A glance at the time and date on the clock had his mind waking up too, all dreams forgotten. He stretched his limbs out before sitting up in his bed, watching the soft morning light filter in through the curtains. 

The day was here. He threw away the covers and headed to the bathroom for his morning routine.

He was expected in the lab in about two hours. During that time, he had a long shower to soothe his nerves, made himself some basic pancakes for breakfast, and FaceTimed his family as he ate. His mum picked up, and everyone was given a few minutes with him before she was snatching the phone back. In her typical fashion, she was very calm about it all, told him she was proud of him and showed no doubt that they would be successful. Her words never failed to make confidence course through him, and now was no exception. Feeling much better than before, he got dressed in a pair of trousers and a Burberry shirt and grabbed his keys.

Locking the door, he sent one last prayer into the universe that he’d come back.

Half an hour later saw him in the parking lot of their lab, which was unusually crowded today. The sky was a little cloudy overhead, but the weather was pleasant nonetheless. 

"Louis!" 

Turning around, he saw Harry jog over to him and smiled. "Styles! Fancy seeing you here."

Harry snorted, opening his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by his phone ringing. "Excuse me."

"Hey." Whoever it was, Harry didn’t sound very excited at them calling. Louis could only hear Harry’s side of the conversation as they started walking to the gate. "Good, great. How are you? Yeah, it is. Uh, yeah. Lou and I are actually heading in now, so… not much time for a chat. Yeah, sure. Thank you."

"Seb?" Louis couldn’t stop himself from asking as he scanned his ID to let them in.

"Seb," Harry confirmed shortly.

Louis nodded. Sebastian was the latest entry in Harry’s list of exes. In fact, they’d only broken up three months ago, when it was finalised that Louis and Harry would be the testees. Harry had said it wasn’t fair to put Seb through it, especially when Harry didn’t entirely return his affections. They had agreed to remain friends, but it seemed to Louis that Seb was trying to cling to something that he never had his hands on in the first place.

He didn’t know more than that, and he was fine with it. It made him feel like a bad friend sometimes, but Harry’s relationships left him bitter and possessive. Both of them avoided talking about it.

They made small talk as they entered. People perked up at the sight of them, and they got swept in a continuous stream of ‘good morning’s and ‘best of luck’s until they reached the med-wing. For the next couple of hours, they had to undergo multiple tests and scans. The medical team needed to make sure they were in optimum health and would need the data to study the effect the experiment had on their bodies.

After that was done, they were brought their suits to change into. They were created particularly for them from a special, extremely durable fabric to make sure they came to no harm during the experiment. White and skintight, they covered them from head to toe. It was the last thing Louis expected to find Harry hot in, but oh well.

When they were all suited up, they were walked to the testing room. The door opened before them, and Louis was hit with the air of excitement and apprehension from inside. It was his favourite kind of atmosphere, got adrenaline flowing in his veins. The project team bustled about around the machine on the floor, while the directors and other VIPs sat in a glass cabin in one corner of the balcony.

In recent history, there had been a major breakthrough in quantum mechanics. The scientists had achieved a better understanding of the parameter, and the applications were infinite. Louis, personally, had been interested in using it to study spacetime further. He had been but a teenager when the idea of creating a time machine had first popped into his head. Ever since his only goal had been to make it a reality.

It had taken years, and brainstorming by various researchers from all over, but they had found a way to navigate time through the quantum world. The apparatus they had developed for the purpose had two main halves. First one was the immobile arc. The emitters would give out high-frequency waves strong enough to transmute matter within a radius of one metre, that would hopefully allow them to slip into the quantum world. They would, quite literally, be disappearing into thin air. The detectors would record every activity on the platform, and help the team to regulate the process. 

The second half was a portable control station, which they'd be taking with them and which would help them return. An assistant brought it to Harry, locked in a case.

"Alright, Louis, Harry, I'm gonna give you a quick run-through of the plan." Emily came forward with a tray. "Your intended destination is London, exactly ten years later. You'll have 51 hours, a little more than two days, to gather any and all information you can find; the specific details are on your computers in the station. 

"As soon as you get there, you must start these watches on your wrists," She handed out the said devices, and they put them on. "Which will begin the countdown. All the watches are synchronised, so either of you can start it. 51 hours for you will be around 3 minutes for us, and we'll start the retrieval procedure as we hit that mark. It's vital that you set the coordinates of the lab from your end. Then you should be ready in your suits, with the station shrunk down and stored away in its case."

"What if we're not?" Louis mused. Because these were the kind of things he’d been thinking about lately.

"I have no idea, Louis." She sighed, looking at him sympathetically. "I have no idea what could happen."

None of them did. 

After a heavy, tense moment, she resumed the instructions. "Here are your guns and capsule cases." Both of them were given a pair, which they strapped securely to their suits. "Each case contains three shrink capsules and three growth capsules. So, between the two of you, there should be enough for your requirement. Don't go about playing with them, boys."

Louis wiggled his eyebrows at Harry mischievously, who chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry, Em. I'll see that he behaves."

He barely stopped himself from reacting to those words. Because of course, Harry only meant it innocently. Even _that_ idea was ridiculous, though, making him snort. See that Louis behaves? Ha. As if he didn't end up doing everything Louis wanted every time.

Emily smiled at them, instead of the usual eye roll she gave in response to their antics. She dropped her arms to the side and pursed her lips, and Louis could see it in the way she was holding herself that she was getting emotional. Stern, no-nonsense Emily was getting emotional over them.

Before she could say anything cheesy, Louis wrapped her up in a hug. "Emily Sandberg, don't you dare start crying on me."

"I am not crying, Louis," She stated, even though her voice was shaky. He caught Harry’s eyes over her shoulder.

"Hey, Vicky!" Harry called out and beckoned the man over. Louis and Emily turned to him, and Louis already liked where this was going.

Vikram finished whatever conversation he was having, and walked up to them. "Do you guys need something?"

"We need a favour, Vikram, one only you can fulfil. Take good care of dear Emily for us until we come back to annoy her," Louis told him and watched amusedly as his eyes lit up.

Harry nodded along seriously. "It’s gonna be three very rough minutes for her."

"You guys are a pain in the ass. I'm not even gonna miss you." Emily pushed Louis away playfully while the men chuckled.

Vikram wrapped her in a side hug as they both turned to leave, mouthing a quick 'thank you' to them.

The rest of the team assumed their respective positions on the regulators, shouting out status checks to each other. It was happening.

Louis climbed up the stairs with his body tingling, Harry following close behind. They came to a stop near the centre of the platform and turned to face each other. Harry smiled at him, but Louis could see the nervousness in it. He hoped the smile he gave in return was reassuring.

A mechanical voice began the countdown. " _Launching in T-minus 10 seconds. 9…_ "

Once, this moment had been a mere dream. A dream that Louis had confessed to in the darkness of their dorm room more than a decade ago. He'd been embarrassed at how fantastical it sounded and had been expecting to be laughed at again. But Harry had jumped up on his creaky bed, eyes alight with excitement. Louis had never forgotten the way he’d looked at him, and how valid it had made him feel.

" _...6, 5…_ "

Harry had made himself crucial to the project, to Louis. Nobody deserved to be here with him more than him. And there was no one else Louis would rather do this with.

" _...2, 1._ " 

No regrets.

" _Initiating launch._ "

Louis felt the arc powering up to his left. An invisible ball of pure energy was created at the point where the ejected waves intersected, and it felt like a minuscule black hole had opened up beside them. The force pulled Louis in, while it pushed everything else away from him. The world began distorting in his peripheral vision as if he was seeing through funhouse mirrors. The last thing he saw clearly was the green of Harry’s eyes.

Then there was white. Endless, stark white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and then they d word. lol kidding. orrrr am i?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they discover stuff

_...out this second or I'm leaving without you!"_

_All he got in response was vague humming, not bothered at all by Harry's threat._

_He huffed to himself at the disrespect. No one took him seriously in this house. He had half a mind to make good on his words and leave, but that would be counterproductive. It was their day, and they were supposed to spend every second together. This year, it was even more special. It was the most special anniversary in the entire history of anniversaries and Harry had it all planned out to the last details._

_Now only if his dearest husband would cooperate._

_He glanced at the clock again. They were now fifteen minutes behind schedule and if Vikram scolded them again, he’d rightfully blame it all on him._

_It took another three minutes for him to appear, and by that time, Harry had been tapping his foot on the ground. He turned at the sound of footsteps, and almost melted at the sight._

_Louis was clad in a thick knit beige jumper and a pair of tight, black trousers. His hair was down in a delicate fringe, his day-old scruff was adorning his cheeks, and his eyes were bright and lovely and so stunningly blue, contrasting the pink of his lips. He had given himself sweater paws, and Harry's body was threatening to explode with the adoration he felt towards him._

_His voice had lost all the annoyance from before when Louis came up to him and he said, "Glad you could finally make it, honey."_

_Louis rolled his eyes, his smile smug because he knew Harry was putty in his hands. He wrapped his arms around Harry's neck and leaned up, capturing his mouth in a sweet kiss. Harry let his eyes fall shut, losing himself in Louis' touch and pulling him closer by his waist._

_Leaving the house was the last thing on Harry's mind when Louis broke the kiss and stepped away. "We don't have all day, H. You've already made us so late. Let's go!"_

_They did have all day, and tomorrow too, all to themselves. It hadn't been Harry who'd made them late. But as Louis eagerly pulled him out of the house, he found himself unable to argue._

_Harry locked the house behind them, waiting for Louis to remember what he was missing. But he didn’t, and Harry was becoming more amused with every passing second. They walked to their car and got inside, Harry behind the wheel. He pointedly started the vehicle, glancing at Louis only to find him planting his feet on the dashboard and getting comfortable in his seat. He bit back a chuckle as he punched in their destination. Not long now._

_Just as their seatbelts clicked into place, Louis froze. “Fuck, H, I forgot to bring the antenna!”_

_Louis cursed again, dropping his feet back to the floor and hurrying to open his seatbelt. Harry was too amused to be mad._

_“Lou. Louis. I know you did.” He turned to him with a hand on the door handle, and Harry sent him a smug smile. “Luckily for you, your husband is a responsible man and knows you very well. The antenna’s in the back.”_

_A grin split Louis’ face, before he was leaning over the central console and launching a tickle attack on Harry. He kept mimicking Harry’s deep voice and mocking his words while Harry struggled to stop laughing, catch Louis’ nimble hands and scream at him to stop because they were too old for this._

_He did stop, but only when the car started moving. Harry gazed into the blue eyes filled with mirth and fondness for him, finally getting a hold on Louis’ hands and lacing their fingers. Their flushed, smiling faces hovered together. Louis closed the remaining distance to leave a kiss on Harry’s lips in thanks. “Don’t know what I’d do without you, darling.”_

_He knew he was dimpling like a fool as he leaned in for another kiss. Like he'd said, he was a lovesick pile of..._

Atoms. Louis' body was made of atoms held together. And currently, those atoms seemed to be screaming, every single one trying to fly away in a different direction. It was a weird sensation; there was pain, but spread out all over his body, like some force was trying to stretch every part of him. He felt like he was dying.

As soon as he felt something stable under his feet, he gave up control of his body, letting his weight drag him to the ground. He gasped in a lungful of air, all his flesh and bones trembling. There was a loud, white noise in his head and he was so, so dizzy. Multicoloured spots danced behind his eyelids. His consciousness seemed to be floating in a separate plane, detached from his body.

It took a few minutes for him to get back the feeling in his extremities and better awareness of his surroundings. He could feel that he was sprawled out on his back, but didn't dare open his eyes for the fear of being wrong. Groaning, he turned onto his side to breathe better. Somehow he remembered to find his watch and start it, officially starting the countdown and their time in the future.

After a while the spots faded, and Louis tried to open his eyes, blinking continuously. When they had adjusted to the sudden daylight, he took in their surroundings. He was lying on soft grass. All around, there were trees of various species, growing dense, tall and proud. Birds sang from atop them. The sky was clear and blue, and the sun was out and bright overhead, its rays being scattered by a million leaves. 

There was an ugly retching sound somewhere nearby, and he titled his head up to see Harry on his hands and knees, throwing up beside a tree. The sight made his already unsettled stomach revolt, but also made him laugh. No, relief. Relief made him laugh. Harry was here with him. Wherever they were.

Louis raised himself up on an elbow, testing the waters. His body's protests slowly died down and he sat up. "You alive, Styles?" 

With a grunt, Harry collapsed against the tree, looking worn out. His voice was weak when he answered. "I think."

He couldn't help being concerned. Getting to his feet against his body's wishes and pushing his glasses up his nose, he stumbled over to Harry. Louis dropped to his knees beside him, one hand wrapped around his arm and the other pressed to his chest. Harry's head rested on the trunk, eyes closed with a small, pained scowl. He looked paler than usual. The jump had clearly had a terrible effect on him.

"Seriously, H, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. Just need a minute."

So, Louis gave him a minute. He kept rubbing Harry's forearm, as if it would help him feel better. Watched as colour rose to his cheeks again, and felt it as his breathing evened beneath his palm. Tilting his head towards Louis, Harry gave him a droopy smile. "We're here."

Louis looked around at the lush flora, trying to fight the disappointment in his gut. It was definitely not London. As far as the eye could see, there were just trees around them. The last thing they wanted was to be thrown into an uninhabited jungle in the middle of fuck-knows-where. "We're somewhere alright."

Harry gave a weak snort, letting his eyes fall shut. Figuring out where they were could wait. He needed to look after Harry now.

"Let's set up the station. You can rest in there, yeah?"

Harry merely hummed. Louis fetched the case from where it was lying a few feet away. He did a quick scan of the place, spotting a little clearing to their right. With another look at Harry to make sure he was alright, he walked over to it. 

The open space was just big enough. Louis dropped to his knees and unlocked the case. Inside, a shiny cuboid lay unassumingly, cushioned on all sides by thick, black foam to keep it safe. He gingerly took it out, finding it barely as big as his hand but unreasonably heavy for its size. Licking his lips, he stood back up.

Louis placed it right in the centre of the clearing, ensuring it was upright. His hand fell to his belt as he took multiple steps away from it. He pulled out his gun and the capsule case, excitement building in his gut. With tingling hands, he picked out a blue capsule and loaded it into the gun. 

He threw a glance at Harry, who was now sitting forward, watching his every move intently. An almost mad grin took over his face, and he saw it mirrored on his best friend's face before he nodded, urging Louis to continue.

Breathing out the excess tension, Louis brought up his arm and pointed the gun at the small box. He took a long moment to aim. Missing the shot would mean a capsule wasted, along with an unnaturally huge blade of grass. 

Then, he pulled the trigger.

There was no sound as the capsule hit the target. Right before his eyes, the box started expanding. It seemed like it was feeding on the matter around it as it grew, sucking the air into itself and creating ripples of gravitation. The force tugged at Louis, and though negligible, it was fascinating to experience.

He backed away the more it grew, until he was standing at the edge of the clearing and before him, their station was life-sized once again. It was a perfect cuboid, about forty feet wide and half as long. The mirrored outer walls glinted in the sun, making him squint, but impeccably achieved their function of camouflage. A short flight of stairs lead to the door, on either side of which there were windows, currently closed. All the heavy machinery, like the power supply and the water tank, was at the bottom, which was why the living space was slightly raised up. Everything they would need to survive three days and more was packed inside.

The entire process was done within seconds, but it took Louis longer to overcome the shock of witnessing it. Sure, they had tested the technology a thousand times in the lab, but using it outside of a controlled, safe environment was something else. What he felt had to be how superheroes would feel if they existed. And this did make him kind of a superhuman, didn't it? _I_ am _in a bloody sci-fi movie._

With an elated, boyish laugh, he started jogging towards Harry. "How wicked was that?"

He was grinning. "You're gonna have to let me do it next time."

"You'll have to beat me to it, Styles." Louis held out a hand to help him up.

"If that's what it takes." Harry clasped his hand around Louis' and pulled himself off the ground. He did it too fast, apparently, because the next second he was swaying dangerously. Louis quickly wrapped an arm around his waist to steady him, draping one of Harry's across his shoulders for support. "Whoa."

"Easy, love." Louis held on until Harry found his balance, and then just to be safe, as they started making their way to the clearing. He didn't let go even when Harry's steps became surer; but neither did Harry, so.

They reached the station and trudged up the stairs. Once there, Louis placed his hand on a depressed square on the wall beside the door. A blue line ran down the sensor as it scanned his handprint, and then lit up green. After a small beep, the whole thing started to power up. If Louis concentrated, he could feel the feeble vibrations under his feet. The door slid open automatically with a hiss. 

Cool air licked across his face as they stepped inside. To their left, was a small seating area and all their computer interfaces, pushed to the left wall; and on the right, a kitchen was set up, and a four-seater dining table stood in the centre. The walls were dull steel, and bare except for a countdown timer installed on the far wall on which 51:08:34 glowed. A walkway space between the couch and the dining table led to a door, which opened to the bedroom and the bathroom. The designing team had tried to minimize the furnishing as much as possible without giving the place a clinical feel.

Louis walked Harry over to the dining table, pulled out one of the chairs and let him sit down. Then he went to grab some water for him from the fridge.

"Here." Louis tossed a small water bottle to Harry, who missed the catch like always. He shook his head fondly as Harry picked it up from the floor, turning to the cabinets above the counter to rummage some. "Can you start the system while I whip up some food for you?"

"Sure," Harry answered after a few gulps.

He found a pack of oatmeal that would be easy on Harry's stomach, and started preparing it. The kitchen was nothing short of a normal one; there were more utensils than Louis knew how to use, and appliances ranging from a blender to a dishwasher. They had a huge menu too, fruits and vegetables and meat and cereals, you name it. They really would be facing no trouble.

He'd just taken a banana out, because he knew Harry liked it, when the said man called from the other side of the room. "Louis. It's busted."

The words caught his attention immediately. "What do you mean?"

"The GPS is busted, Lou. It's not working."

Louis stalked to the table in disbelief. Leaning over him, he saw that Harry had their map application pulled up on the screen, but instead of their location, an error message flashed. Harry tried to recenter the map, or pull up some random location on it, but to no avail. The red triangle flashed no matter what he did.

"Oh God, oh _Jesus_. Okay, uh." He ran a hand down his face. The fucking GPS was broken.

It must have happened sometime during their jump, and that must be why they landed at the wrong place. Now, they had no way of knowing where they were, unless they found it from the outside world. Worse yet, they won't be able to set a location when they try to go back. They could risk it, because they were in the right time period hopefully. But if they did, they could end up anywhere from Antarctica to under the Pacific Ocean. 

No. Louis wasn't risking it, not this time. They had to get it to work.

He tried not to panic, tried to think positive. It might not be as big a problem as he feared, there might be some simple solution. "We could— we could try to reboot the whole station, maybe?"

Restarting always worked.

Harry looked up at him with wide eyes and furrowed brows. "We could, but that would take a lot of energy."

"Can't we, I don't know, compensate for it somehow? Won't it be worth a shot?"

Harry glanced at the screen with hesitance all over his face.

Louis gave an urgent squeeze to his shoulder. "H, c'mon. The GPS is way more important than anything. We'll lower the heating or something, make up for it." 

If they still ran out, they'd find a way to charge up again. Louis would make sure they do. He suddenly regretted having turned down the solar windows to cut down the budget.

"What if we do it when we're getting ready to leave?" Harry suggested.

"But we need it now. We're stuck in the middle of a forest. How are we going to find our way out without the GPS?"

Harry let out a resigned sigh, rotating his chair back to the computer. "All right. Guess we can try."

He shut down the system, before getting up and walking to the manual power button beside the door. Harry pulled the lever down, and Louis felt the vibrations die under him. They waited for a few minutes, letting the electricity completely fizzle out. 

Then, Harry turned it back on, reviving the station. Settling back into his chair, he booted up the computer. Louis was biting his nails as Harry launched the GPS application once more. There couldn’t have been a malfunction; it _had_ to work.

Seconds later, the error message popped up again. Blood drained from his face. It hadn't worked. He had just wasted about half a day's worth of electrical energy. _Fuck._

"I'm sorry," He choked out, backing away from Harry with a hand clamped over his mouth. "Fuck, I'm so sorry."

"No, Louis, don't be." Harry spun his chair around, grabbing Louis before he could step away further. "We had to try. And we can—we _will_ —find some other way to fix it, okay?"

Louis kept staring at the red triangle of error, near deaf to Harry’s reassurances. He just felt so guilty. So guilty and so panicked, he couldn't think past it. They had no clue where in the world they were, their GPS was broken, they didn’t know what was wrong with it, and he had just cost them a huge amount of power. He was a bloody idiot. Who the fuck even allowed him to be here?

He should’ve just listened to Harry and this wouldn’t have happened. Why did he never listen to Harry, for fuck’s sake.

"Lou." Harry squeezed his hands, making him look down at him. "You and I will find a way out. We always do."

Louis didn’t see a way out, saw another problem instead. What if they weren’t in the right time period either? He had promised Harry he’d take them back. How was he gonna do that without knowing where on earth and which point in time they were at? What had he gotten them into?

He didn’t register the slightly burnt smell wafting in the air until Harry nudged him. "I think it's done, whatever you were making."

Harry’s oatmeal, he’d completely forgotten about it. Cursing under his breath, Louis rushed to the stove and turned the burner off. He took out a bowl, and transferred the oatmeal into it. Some of it had gotten stuck to the bottom of the pot, and he left it there. He had planned to slice up the banana and put it in, all fancy like, but the oatmeal was ruined, and so was his mood.

Avoiding his worried eyes, he put the bowl and the banana in front of Harry, who’d come to sit at the dining table. Just to occupy himself, he found a protein bar to munch on. He sat down opposite Harry, tearing open the wrapper and biting into it with more force than necessary. He couldn’t stop fidgeting, could feel Harry’s gaze on him as they ate in silence, but he didn’t know what to do about it all.

Luckily, he had Harry for times like these.

"All right, here’s what we’re not gonna do. We’re not going to sit here with a long face, wasting our precious time," Harry told him as he got up to put away the bowl. When he came back, he placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. Louis’ lips twitched at the intimidating look Harry was failing to pull. "And here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going out there, using our big brains and finding a solution to this mess. You hear me, Tomlinson?"

Louis sighed, putting down the wrapper he’d started fiddling with. The GPS wasn’t gonna fix itself while he had a crisis. He had to get up and at least help Harry. Straightening up in his seat, he nodded. "You’re right. We need to find civilization, H. I didn't come here for fucking trees." 

Harry nodded at him in approval.

The bedroom in the station had two single beds, with one bedside table between them. Across from it was the common bathroom, and their closets, which were stocked with their own clothes. They helped each other out of the suits, and in a different, better scenario, Louis would have found it hot. Hanging them carefully in the said closets, they pulled out some normal clothes to change into. He went for his go-to outfit — a plain tee and a pair of jeans. On second thought, he also grabbed a light jacket in case it got chilly later.

Louis was fixing his hair after pulling his shirt down when an arm wrapped around his shoulders from behind, and pulled him backwards.

"Thank you for the breakfast, by the way," Harry murmured, his nose buried behind Louis’ ear.

Heat rose up Louis’ chest as he brought his hands down to hold Harry’s arm. He should quip back, point out how the oatmeal was burned, but the warm press of Harry’s body against his was a shock. He couldn’t manage more sound than a hum.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked next, rubbing circles into his shoulder.

Louis let out a breath, hoping the shakiness wasn’t too evident. "I’m fine, H. Don’t worry."

Harry didn’t reply immediately, and Louis knew he wasn’t buying it. He squeezed him once before letting go. "If you say so."

With a sheepish face, Louis turned around. Harry just gave a shake of his head, tossing him one of the two backpacks he had found. They proceeded to stuff them with food, water bottles, and other essentials they’d need for the hike, and stepped outside once they were ready.

The station was their lifeline and leaving it behind was not even an option. They could easily get lost in the forest, and there was no telling if they’d be able to find it again. So, after he’d put it into suspend mode to save power, Harry prepared his gun to shrink it back down. He threw an excited look to Louis before turning to aim. It was not a difficult task, considering how big the thing was, but Harry still whooped in joy when he succeeded. A fond little laugh escaped Louis’ lips as Harry skipped over to collect the station. He put it back in its case, put the case in his backpack. 

At 50:02:21, they were off.

The sun gave a vague sense of direction, and they started towards the North for no particular reason. There was enough warmth at this time of afternoon, and Louis had to tie his jacket around his waist. Walking in the woods helped him calm down too. He was still worried, but was slowly getting control back over himself. 

The forest seemed endless, and it got boring soon. A few feet to his left, Harry took out the camera they were given for snapping pictures of important, interesting things. Things around them were neither important to their experiment, nor interesting to Louis. Harry, though, entertained himself with clicking photos of birds and scenic views of the forest while they strolled.

And it just wouldn’t do for Louis not to mock him. "We travel ten years into the future, and Harry Styles wants to photograph birds."

"Piss off. I found some rare species," He answered without stopping what he was doing. "And it’s not like there’s much else to look at here, is it?"

 _You could look at me._ He almost said it out loud, nearly started swaying his hips a little, but caught himself just in time. It would be too inappropriate. "That is true."

Boring turned into frustrating. They had been walking for more than an hour and had gotten nowhere. Louis hoped they weren’t going in circles but couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe they’d have to spend both the days roaming the trees—

"Lou, a trail! There's a trail down there!"

He turned around fast enough to give himself whiplash. "Fuck, really?" 

"Yeah! Saw it through the camera. This way!" Harry was already running towards it, and Louis wasted no time following.

Sure enough, just a few feet away, there was a trail on the forest floor. It was clearly man-made, wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Hope spiked up in his heart. Thank fuck for Harry and his camera.

Louis rushed onto it and took five steps before he realised Harry wasn't with him. He immediately whirled around, laughing when he saw him. Harry had gone the other way, and he turned around too when he noticed Louis' absence. With a chuckle, Harry started walking back to him, and Louis met him in the middle.

"Trying to ditch me, Harold?"

"Obviously. You're unbearably annoying." Harry grinned cheekily. Scrunching up his nose, Louis raised his hand to flick his forehead. But Harry had had years' of practice predicting his moves, and he tilted his head back, so Louis' finger met his… lips. Louis tried to ignore the tingle suddenly overtaking his hand while Harry touched his mouth with a frown. "Ow. That _stings_."

He rolled his eyes, changing the topic to the important matters. "Which way do you wanna go?"

"Which way do you think we'll find people?"

"Either way, the trail has got to lead somewhere." Louis glanced over his shoulder. Something felt right about that direction. "But maybe we should continue in the same direction we were following before."

Harry shrugged easily. "All right."

The hope and excitement he’d felt when they’d found the trail wore off after half an hour. It seemed to wind deeper and deeper into the forest. Louis was not so sure that they’d chosen the right direction anymore. He could’ve made the wrong decision again, and the thought was weighing down more on his conscience with every step. 

Harry, sweet, lovely Harry, was trying to be as optimistic as he could, pointing out nature’s wonders to take Louis’ mind off of the ugly feelings in his chest. But Louis couldn’t focus. They had lost almost two hours just trying to get out of this jungle, and yet, no exit was in sight.

Until it suddenly was.

The trees cleared abruptly, bringing a road into their vision. Louis’ body chilled with the surge of relief he felt. It was a total 180 degrees from the hopelessness he’d been drowning in seconds ago, and it was almost dizzying. 

Louis caught Harry’s eye, finding every emotion on his face that he was himself feeling. He let a laugh bubble out as he dashed the last few feet and onto the road, Harry right on his heels.

The road was a narrow two-lane, with trees and shrubs on either bank and stretching out as far as he could see. He stood in the middle, and could finally see the sun without obstruction. After the denseness of the forest, he felt like he could breathe again. If he had been more dramatic, he would’ve kissed the tarmac.

"Alright, Harold." He put his hands on his hips. "Left or right?"

Harry puffed out his chest importantly, considering his options. "Decisions, decisions."

Louis giggled, poking him in the stomach. Harry broke into a grin as he dodged and grabbed Louis’ arm to pull him to his side. Wrapping an arm around Louis’ shoulders, he steered them to the left.

Finding the road restored their energy. They began to chat. Louis almost had a skip in his step as they walked down it, counting down until a vehicle passed them. It shouldn’t be long.

Jinxed it.

It was long, so long before they encountered any vehicle. Frustration was edging in _again_ , and he was becoming aware of the slight ache in his legs. Harry was trudging behind him, sighing every few minutes. It added to the annoyance a little, but Louis couldn’t blame him. 

A gentle rumble broke through the rustling of the leaves and Harry’s sighs. Louis’ ears perked up at the sound. He squinted down the road, and after a few seconds, could make out a speck of a vehicle coming towards them.

"Oh, thank fuck." He stepped closer to the road, holding out an arm and giving the thumbs up signal.

As the car neared, Louis could make out its details. He didn’t recognise the model, but liked the elegant, aerodynamic design. It’s white coat shone in the sunlight, and reflected the canopy of leaves. Harry crossed his fingers and squeezed his eyes shut, praying for the car to slow down. 

It didn’t slow down, though. Sped right past them instead.

"What the fuck?!" Louis couldn’t believe it. Not only the car hadn’t stopped, but— "Were they shagging?!"

"What?" Harry asked with a confused laugh.

"I'm pretty sure I saw that couple in the car all over each other." Neither of them had a hand on the steering, Louis saw it with his own poor eyes. Why were they putting so much trust in autopilot?

Harry gave him a deadpan look, obviously thinking the same thing. "Are you sure you're okay, Lou? You’re not, I dunno, sex deprived, are you?"

Louis rolled his eyes, resuming the walk. His best friend was a dick. "You're a dick. I'll have you know I had a great fuck just this week."

He came prepared.

"How wonderful." There was a sudden coldness in Harry's voice. Louis frowned to himself at that, but didn't dare turn to him for fear of finding the same coldness on his face.

They fell into silence, and Louis pretended it wasn’t awkward. It was broken exactly seventeen minutes later, when he spotted a house on the other side of the road. He pointed it out to Harry, and they hurried towards it.

Out in front of the house was a shop. It was a small space, but completely overflowing with random items. Louis saw jars of candies, packs of cigarettes, lighters and torches, stacks of books, a bundle of fishing rods, and a wall full of clocks each of which showed a different time. Soft toys hung from another wall, but they were so old and covered in dust, they looked creepy. There were a _lot_ of things, things that wouldn't normally be found in the same shop, but what excited him the most was the human. 

Right in the middle of the mess sat a burly man, a lit cigar between his lips. He was bundled up in layers of jackets, sitting with his arms crossed over his chest. An ugly fedora sat perched on his head, hiding his face from view. He was so still he could be asleep. Louis was as thrilled at seeing him as he'd be if it were an extraterrestrial in front of him.

"Uh, excuse me." He rapped his knuckles on the counter two times. "Sir?"

The man snapped his head up. His face was broad and his long hair was matted. Even his beard had braids, adorned with colourful beads. His eyes were red and dazed, like a heavy smoker's. He didn't look very helpful, his gaze bordering on hostile as he regarded the strangers who’d dared disturb his nap time.

Louis made what he thought was the least suspicious request. "Do you happen to have a newspaper we could borrow? Possibly today's?"

Cigar guy gave him a long hard stare, but no answer. Then he stared at Harry. Then he stood up, turned and disappeared behind a hanging carpet that was working as a curtain.

 _That went well. All_ the frustration came rushing back to him. He couldn't have found a more subtle way to ask for the day's date. The man could've given them an answer, even a no, at the very least. For all they knew, he was ringing up the police to report two men, suspected of being aliens.

Louis was about to turn around with a huff and continue on their way, when the carpet rustled and the guy came back out. There was a fresh, unlit cig in his mouth and a rolled up paper in his hand. 

He tossed it on the counter towards them, before grabbing a lighter and dropping into his chair. The poor thing squeaked under his weight. Louis picked up the newspaper gingerly, while the man lit his pipe and threw the lighter back into the mess.

"Nobody appreciates newspapers these days. They're all busy with their little tech boxes." He made a hand motion mockingly scrolling on a phone, looking disgruntled. Louis scowled at the man, always ready to defend technology at the drop of a hat. But Harry squeezed his arm before he could speak, and he bit his tongue. "They had to close The Times office back in town 'cause of low demand. Even offered to pay all their expenses, I did. But they didn't stay. Now I have to read this garbage, this local paper. They got nothing to cover but Gavin's flowers and Martha Lee's hens. And they can't even afford a single coloured photo. Bloody joke. But it's today's, at least, it's fresh."

He puffed out a cloud of smoke, still muttering.

Louis exhaled noisily through his nose to get his annoyance out, pushing his glasses up and opening the newspaper. Harry hooked his chin over his shoulder to get a look himself.

The first thing Louis checked was the date, written in tiny letters under the name of the newspaper. September 28, 2032. He sighed in relief, and felt Harry relax too. 

"This town you were talking about, how far is it?" Harry asked him, stepping away. Louis quickly scanned the paper for more information, but the headlines didn't have anything of use to them.

"Barely a mile."

"This way? Down this road?" Harry pointed to the direction they'd been headed.

"Sure." The man wrapped his arms around himself, assuming his previous position. Louis couldn't tell if the guy really knew what he was talking about, but it was their only lead.

"Well, thank you very much for your help." He slid the newspaper back to the man over the counter.

He gave a half wave of his hand. "Keep it. I'm done with it anyway."

Louis shrugged, picking up the paper and rolling it in his hands. Paper was always useful. He nodded at the man, got ignored, then turned to the road again.

The man had not been wrong, after all. After ten minutes of walking, they spotted a board on the roadside. It was half hidden by the greenery around it, and direly needed a paint job. But there was no mistaking what it was.

_Welcome To Little Sunmoore._

They took a break right there. What were a few more minutes when they’d lost two and a half hours already?

"I hope it’s not too far," Harry said after guzzling down a bottle of water. "My feet are starting to protest."

So were Louis’. If it hadn’t been for the rigorous physical training they were given, he would’ve collapsed long ago. He’d damned it when he had had to do it, but was thanking it now. He sighed, standing up and holding a hand out for Harry. "Let’s find out."

Fortunately for them and their feet, it wasn’t far at all. A peaked roof of a building soon became visible through the high trees, and they followed it like the North star.

The first sign of civilization were unidentifiable ruins, blocks of stone scattered between the trees, on which the moss grew thick. The forest was cleared a little for a cemetery. And then came a church as old as the ruins, the roof of which they had spotted. There was not a single soul around.

A little ways down the road was a calm brook, early autumn leaves floating on its clear water. They crossed an old, wooden bridge to the other side. Up ahead, on one side of the road was a vacant motel, and on the other side, a small hill.

Soon, houses and shops started popping up, until they were walking into the actual town.

And that’s all it was, a little town, stuck in time. The streets were paved with dark red stones, smooth with years of use. They weaved between rows of houses, old in style and made of limestone blocks. Flower pots decorated the balconies. Someone was practising piano loudly, while a baby wailed a few houses down. Fancy lamp posts lined the footpaths. Colourful paper flags flapped over the market, and people relaxed in the plaza around a marble statue of some guy from the early modern era. There were quaint libraries, inns and pubs. 

The townspeople went about their daily lives happily in their blissful corner of the world. They greeted each other with a smile, stopped to chat in the middle of the path. A few even acknowledged the two of them, smiling and nodding.

Louis had nothing personal against towns, but right now, the gut-wrenching disappointment he felt was making him resent this place. As they walked down the quiet lane, he missed the bustle of London. He watched these serene people and thought of those rushing across the city with no time to spare. The air was so fresh, even in the centre of the town, it felt strange to his pollution-acclimated nose. It was sad that instead of this paradise of a place, he wanted London.

Up ahead, the road split in opposite directions, wrapping around a big park. They entered it through a wide gate. Cobbled pathways ran around and through the circular park. Tall, leafy trees acted as a barrier to the road, giving the park a peaceful feel. There was a fountain in the centre, but it wasn’t working. Children played on swings, slides, monkey bars and sandpits. Louis saw more people here than they had in the rest of the town combined. 

Directly across from them was the other exit. They figured they would split, stroll through different sides of the park, and meet there.

Louis turned his earpiece on as he began walking down the right pathway, while Harry went left. He looked around as a tourist would. Through the gaps between the trees, he could see what lay outside the park, what the road led to.

"I can see lots of houses. Looks like a residential area," He mumbled to Harry. 

"It’s the same on this side." Harry answered. "Just houses, and a few shops."

Louis sighed. "Not much to the place, is there?"

It was as good as useless to them. He doubted anyone here could be of any help, except getting them to London, maybe. And to be honest, that's all he wanted right now. 

Because it’d be there that they’d get to see what they came here for. All the progress humans had made, out in the streets in the hands of common people and for them to see. He didn’t have any crazy expectations, considering they were only ten years in the future. But he was sure it would be more visible there than here. Then there was their lab. Louis was ready to bet his life that even a single room there would be more fascinating than this entire town combined.

He’d nearly reached the exit when there was a shout, then sudden movement in his peripheral vision. He glanced to his left to see a little girl running towards him, with a wide smile that also seemed to be directed at him. Her caramel waves bounced with her steps. She couldn't have been older than 5. 

"Papa!" She giggled as she reached him and raised her arms up.

Entirely on the instinct developed because of his younger siblings, Louis caught her and picked her up. Her tiny arms wrapped around his shoulders, and Louis felt the coarse sand on her fingers as she gripped the back of his neck.

"I missed you, Pa," She said, with no sign that she'd mistaken a stranger for her parent.

Louis, for his part, was stunned. 

This was his kid? _His? Kid?! He_ had a fucking kid now? Since when did he _want_ a kid? Holy shit. 

And to think he was sure nothing much would have changed in ten years. 

His mind was reeling, trying to process all the new information. This meant that he lived here now, didn't it? He'd settled down. Here, of all the places on the planet. Was he bloody married too? To whom? How many children did he have? Just his fucking luck that he'd end up where he lived in the future and run into his future child. Now the said child was in his arms and he didn't even know her name. How the fuck would he handle this?

"Oh yeah?" He managed to croak out.

"Yes." She shifted in his arms to drop her head on his other shoulder. "I wanted to come home today but Uncle Niall won't take me."

Uncle Niall? Who the hell was this? He didn't know anyone by that name. Could be a friend he hadn't yet made. And apparently he trusted him enough to leave his daughter with him.

"Uncle Niall wouldn't?" He asked carefully, not wanting to seem suspicious even to her little brain.

"No. He said I could only go back on Monday. But he brought me here," She told him. "He also bought me candy."

The girl pulled back and gave him a toothy, dimpled grin, guilty and mischievous, like she wasn't allowed to eat candies but she had. Louis couldn't help but laugh softly.

Mild panic gripped him. If this Niall person had brought her to the park, then he must be around here somewhere. They didn't need to be spotted, much less by people who could recognise them. Louis ran his gaze around the park, as if to find Niall, but it was a futile effort since he didn't know what he looked like.

"Baby, can you tell me where's Niall?" He asked nonchalantly, like he was hoping to meet him. He didn’t know why he was being so cautious with a kid, but he just didn’t want to risk it.

"He was playing with us but then he went to use the washroom."

Louis relaxed ever so slightly. They had time; just a little, but still some. In any case, it would be safer to leave as soon as possible.

"You're wearing glasses." She looked delighted when she observed that.

What did that mean, he'd stopped using glasses? "Look smart, don't I?" He gave her a grin and wiggled his eyebrows.

"The most smart, Papa." She giggled at him, holding his cheeks.

"Who's that, Lou?" Harry's voice asked in his ear, over the kid telling him she wanted glasses to look smart herself.

"My daughter, it seems," Louis murmured to him, leaning his head back when the girl tried to snatch his glasses off his face. He shifted her to one arm and took them off himself, handing it to her. 

"Your daughter?"

"Yeah. Guess I live in this craphole, now. And have a freaking kid, too."

"Oh." There was a pause that Louis was too distracted to read into. "Guess I'll have to meet her then!"

Louis snorted to himself. Of course Harry did. "Just make it quick, please. We need to leave soon.

For a fleeting second, he worried if she even knew Harry, but then scoffed at the thought. No child of his would not know Harry. Even though it was ten years later and he was living in Little Shitmoore, he was sure they were still in contact and Harry visited him often. Fixing his glasses, that were entirely too big for her little head, behind the kid's ears, he wondered where Harry lived now, if he was as settled as him. 

The entire situation felt sombre to Louis. A lot of things were gonna change in ten years, he hadn't realised that before. In respect to human life span, a decade was a long time, and on a personal level, everything would've changed. Then again, he hadn't meant to find out about the transformation of _his_ life. He was interested in the future of humankind in general. Just wanted to make travelling through time possible, and maybe see if flying cars would actually be a thing someday.

Over the kid's shoulder, he watched Harry walk towards them, a smile on his face. When he was close enough, he greeted them with a cheerful, "Hello! Who do we have here?"

The girl turned at his voice and gasped. "Daddy!"

She pushed against Louis' chest, and threw herself towards Harry. Trying to steady her, Louis saw Harry's eyes widen as he rushed forward the last couple of steps and caught her.

Hold the fuck up. _Daddy?_

Harry shot him an alarmed look as he adjusted his grip to hold her more securely and stammered out a 'hi' to her. She tossed Louis' glasses aside, no longer interested in them, and Louis barely caught them before they hit the ground.

Instead, the kid grabbed tiny fistfuls of Harry's curls. "Daddy, your hair! It's so pretty!"

Louis' brain felt like it had frozen over, but was simultaneously going a hundred miles a second. Why was she calling him Daddy? It couldn't possibly mean what he thought it meant, could it? There was no fucking way Harry was her Daddy when Louis was her Papa. No fucking way they were— holy shit. The idea was so wild he couldn’t even imagine it. 

Maybe there was a more reasonable explanation for it, there had to be. Maybe Harry had never found his person after all, and Louis had grown tired of meaningless one night stands, so they decided to live together and… adopt a child. 

He wasn’t able to convince even himself.

On a less alarming but no less important note, if she knew him then why was she surprised by his hair? Had future Harry cut his beloved mane?

"Thank you." Harry chuckled awkwardly, looking at Louis briefly. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah! It's like in your old photos." Her fingers were nicely tangled in the strands and she tugged, making Harry wince slightly. "How did they grow so big in one day?"

Okay. He definitely had cut them.

Harry was struggling with the answer, looking at Louis for help. If Louis wasn’t so shellshocked, he would’ve snickered and teased him a bit since he always claimed to be so good with kids. 

But he was, and he spit out the first lie he could think of. "He called a fairy to help him." 

"A fairy?" She glanced at him with wide eyes and an open mouth, before turning back to Harry. "She gave you curls and made you pretty for your anniversary, Daddy?"

_Anniversary?!_

Louis forgot how to breathe. 

They must have surely travelled to another fucking dimension because there was no way this was happening. Harry and Louis were what? Today was their _what?_ This kid was _theirs? What?!_

"Yeah, sweets." Harry laughed softly again, and it sounded less strained this time.

"But I want a fairy to make me pretty too!" The girl bounced in his arms. "And I want purple hair."

"Oh, but you're already so pretty." Harry cooed at her, booping her nose. "Prettier than the fairy, even."

The girl pressed a finger to his lips, looking horrified. "Don't say that! She'll get mad."

Harry tittered, enamoured with the kid already. Louis couldn’t deny it, she was pretty adorable and bubbly. Almost enough to distract him from his internal breakdown. 

"Papa," She twisted in Harry's arms to face him again, then leaned her weight towards Louis without doubting that he'd catch her. "Do you like Daddy's hair?"

"Yeah, babe." He smiled at her, ignoring the pounding of his heart and the heat in his cheeks. Without thinking about it, he tugged on one of the curls before letting it spring back. "It's so curly and wonderful, isn't it?"

She giggled, dropping her head on his shoulder and making grabby hands for Harry. They both stepped closer simultaneously, forming a tiny (family?) huddle. The girl resumed playing with Harry’s hair, who began talking to her in a gentle voice.

Louis found himself getting carried away in the moment. He didn’t feel out of his depth like he’d feared he would. He felt like he fit here, teaming with the kid to tease Harry, both of them scuffling playfully for her favouritism. He liked the way Harry’s eyes shone at him, liked the sound of the kid’s giggles, liked the matching dimples on their cheeks. The idea of this being his life did not feel so repulsive, like it had with all his previous relationships.

He didn’t know what to make of that. 

Before he got a chance to try, she started fidgeting in Louis' arms. "Papa, I want to go. Or Theo will build a bigger castle than me!"

He spent half a second wondering who was Theo, throwing a glance at the children playing in the sandpit. Her squirming quickly drew back his attention.

"Alright, alright! I'll let you go." Louis told her, changing his grip on her to put her down carefully. She was ready to dash as soon as her feet hit the ground, but he held her back by her little hands, crouching in front of her. "We'll see you soon, okay? Be good for Papa."

She nodded, making an impatient noise. Louis chuckled and quickly leaned in to kiss her cheek. He patted her back to send her off, and she yelled her goodbyes to them as she sprinted. Louis sighed as he stood back up.

“Why'd you do that?" Harry asked, voice quiet.

Louis glanced at him, but just as their eyes met, Harry looked away. He frowned slightly at that, following his gaze to the little girl who had started working on her castle again. "Why did I do what?"

Harry waited a moment before replying. "Kiss her like that."

Pressing his lips together, Louis thought about it, unlike he had before actually doing it. He was pretty used to parting with his baby siblings with a kiss, so it could easily be muscle memory. But he saw Harry's point; he wouldn't have done that with a kid he just met.

This wasn't just any kid, though, was she?

He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself to admit it out loud. "Felt like it." He shrugged. "Felt like something a father would do."

When he turned to Harry, Louis found him already watching. His face was slack, unreadable, but his eyes were slightly wider than usual. Louis’ mouth went a little dry as they stared at each other, as the heaviness of the implications crashed on him again.

Some point in their future, they would most likely get together, get _married_. They were going to _have a child together_. 

He couldn’t do this. Not now. It was too much.

Louis turned away. "It's getting late, H. Let's get out of here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> louis after meeting their daughter: *surprised pikachu face*


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they discover more stuff

There was a difference between being prudent and being a pussy. Harry was not being prudent, was all Louis had to say.

"Care to explain why, Harold?"

Harry rolled his eyes like it was obvious. "First off, and this single-handedly ruins your plan, _we do not know where they live._ What are you gonna do, go up to someone and ask, 'hey, we've lost our way home in this tiny little town where we've been living for years, so can you give us directions?'"

Finding out their future selves lived in that town had definitely complicated things, but Louis could find a way, he was sure. "We could—"

"No, we can't. And I'm not done." Harry waved him off his shoulder, trekking four steps ahead of Louis on his stupid long legs. "Secondly, how can we just… go over there? Two sets of Louis and Harry, how weird would that be? What if someone saw us, what if the kid saw us? What if something goes wrong?"

"The kid would be at Neil-what's-his-name, she told me herself. If anyone sees, we can explain. And Harry, think about it, who could help us better than our own future selves?" He felt like it was their only chance, and no problem could arise that was bigger than the one they already had. "I feel like you're deliberately trying to find complications here."

"I’m not— Louis, why don't you understand?!" Harry turned to him, looking frustrated. Surprised at his outburst, Louis stopped too.

They had chased the setting sun back onto the way they had come. Once again, there had been no traffic, and the tall trees on either side of the road created quite the scenery. Louis' legs had gone numb long ago. But they had to keep going until they were hidden in the woods again.

When they had started, it was with the most awkward silence Louis had ever had to endure. Both of them were still shocked at what had happened in the park, and neither of them knew how to process it, much less move past it. There was another option — ignoring it all together — and Louis chose that. He had more pressing concerns anyway, like their busted GPS, and he’d busied himself with that. Trying to come up with a solution, he had offhandedly suggested that they go to their future house and ask for help from their future selves. But Harry had outright turned it down. He wasn't ready to even hear Louis out, storming down the trail they had found into the forest. They had differing opinions eight times out of ten, and Louis was sometimes taken aback at how well they worked despite that.

He waited for him to go on, but Harry just shook his head and started walking again. Watching him stride away, Louis realised there may be a third reason Harry didn't want to go.

Theirs was a painfully platonic relationship, painful on Louis' part. Harry had made it obvious multiple times in the past that best friends were all they were, and there wasn't much scope for anything else. He dated like he was making a point to not be available for Louis, a relationship a year. Not to mention how uncomfortable he got whenever anyone mistook them for a couple. Louis had gotten the hint fairly quickly.

Now they had met (most probably) their daughter, and that was… something. It was still hard to wrap his mind around the idea that they might be together in the future. Louis had always thought they wouldn't be compatible that way. Harry was very vocal about his ideal partner, and Louis simply didn't fit. Harry wanted at least three kids, a dog _and_ a cat, while Louis was happy with a couple shags a week. He was too busy inventing cool things like time machines to commit to someone anyway.

He didn't know how they would handle it if they were faced with their future selves who were in a very not-platonic relationship. For their friendship's sake, he was ready to give up on his idea of visiting them, but how were they going to get help otherwise?

Shaking himself out of it, Louis resumed walking. He hated having to think about these things. Fucking feelings. Making everything more difficult than it had to be since 1991.

They lapsed into silence again, and it wasn't helping Louis to stop thinking. Rather, it added the burden of his best friend being angry with him. He just needed Harry to talk to him.

Up ahead, many bushes were flowering on the edge of the trail. He had no idea what the flowers were called, but they were pink, cute and throwable. Pursing his lips, he picked the prettiest ones, then jogged up to Harry as swiftly as he could. The man gave no indication of being aware of his presence behind him, but Louis could fix that.

He took one of the flowers, and tossed it at Harry's head. It hit his ear, startling him, but Harry quickly regained his composure. Louis held back a snicker, and started hitting him with a flower every few steps. Harry ignored him for a while...

…but couldn't for long. "Lou, stop!"

"I'm sorry, all right!" He threw another flower, which got caught in the neckline of Harry's shirt, and made Harry turn around and give him a very much unamused look. Louis walked up to him, and held out the last couple of flowers with what he hoped was a cute puppy face. "We don’t have to go if you don’t want to, I promise. Don't give me the bloody silent treatment. Please."

Harry refused to look at him, frowning at the ground with a pout. Louis wanted to kiss it until it disappeared.

"Harold." 

Harry lifted his eyes to his face, watching him from under his lashes. Louis gave him his sincerest smile. He must have accepted it, because the frown slowly melted away, a cheeky, lopsided grin taking its place. He snatched the flowers from Louis' hand and skipped away before Louis could comprehend it.

"Oi!"

"I'm still not talking to you," Harry called out, arranging the blooms in his hair.

"Hey, that's not fair! You even took my flowers!" Louis had been cheated. What a fucking fraudster. He pushed his aching legs to catch up to him.

"I don't know you. Go away."

"Harry!"

It was only a few minutes later when they found a clearing big enough for their station. That was a good thing, considering Louis was about to die of fatigue.

"I'm gonna do it," Harry declared, dropping his bag to the ground and pulling out the case containing the station.

"I let you do it when we left!" Louis feigned offence. He was gonna let Harry do it again, a way to appease him further, and of course Harry knew that too. So he didn't put up more of a fight, just sat down on his bum with a groan.

Harry took the station and set it properly. "Yup. And I'm doing it now too."

He watched as Harry stepped back and pulled out his gun. It was the time of least vision of the day, plus the station was tiny and camouflaged. It’d need a sharp eye to nail the shot. He mentally wished Harry good luck, closing his eyes for a moment.

More than a moment passed, but Harry still didn’t call him. Concern was starting to form in the back of his mind. Then he heard Harry curse. "Fuck."

His eyes flew open. Harry was on his knees, upending his bag with a deep frown on his face. "H? You okay?"

Harry's actions became more frantic, one of the flowers coming loose and falling down. "Lou, I— I can't find my capsule case!"

"Your capsule case?" Louis rushed to his side. "Didn't you have it on you?"

"I did! I know it was right on my belt until…" Harry trailed off, body completely stilling. He got a faraway look in his eyes, and his voice was haunted when he said, "until the park." 

Goddamnit, Louis was growing to hate that place. They had lost not one or two, but _half_ of their capsules. There was no telling if they’ll ever find the case, much less if it would be in the same place tomorrow. And if someone else were to get their hands on it, it’d be a worldwide disaster. 

But there was not much they could do about it now.

He dug into his own pockets and pulled out his case. He clicked it open, the five capsules sitting safely inside. "Should be enough." Or so he hoped, at least.

"I'm so sorry." Harry did look sorry as he took the case from Louis. It would’ve been better if they hadn’t lost it, true, but it wasn’t Harry’s fault. And there was no use dwelling on it.

Louis tilted his head to the side. "H, it's not like you left it behind intentionally. Shit happens, it's fine." He gave a quick little rub to the small of his back, and patted twice to urge him on. "Go on, then."

Harry was laser-focused as he loaded and aimed, squinting in the low light. It was quite a sight, pretty Harry with a flower in his curls and a gun in his hand, pale skin washed pink with the early evening light. Louis stood at a safe distance, watching as he fired and backed away. The station was ready once again.

Once inside, they freshened up. Then lounged about for a while, relaxing their bodies, before Harry took it upon himself to cook them dinner. Louis could see Harry was still upset and was clearly making reparations. He tried to help as much as he could, knowing how tired Harry must be, but he was a mere novice in front of Harry’s expertise.

Harry made them chicken and veggie stir fry, and it was absolutely delicious after the day they’d had. Louis ate until he was full, and then a little more just to see Harry smile as he served.

After their expedition, the GPS had become one problem among many. Now that he was full and in a better headspace than the morning, he was certain he could find a lead on it. Louis wasn't sure what exactly had gone wrong with it, and there was only so much they could do without disassembling the whole thing, but he guessed the promptuary for the station was a good place to start. He sat down at the computer, bringing it to life with the flicking of a few switches.

"Aren't you coming to bed?" Harry asked from behind him.

Louis ignored the little flip of his heart. It wasn't like they were sharing a bed anyway. "Erm, I will, later. Gonna read a bit on this GPS. Try to find something useful."

"Oh."

A second later, Harry was pulling up a chair beside Louis. 

"You don't have to, H. I know you're knackered; go get some rest." Louis only got a shrug in response, the other man booting up the second system with a determined look on his face. He sighed, because he knew there was no point in arguing with him now. 

Louis pulled up the promptuary and found the part about the space-time GPS. It was easily half a hundred pages — all their research on it, along with the process of its construction. Groaning internally, he settled in for a long night.

In two hours, he had read about half of it, making notes and marking the components that could've been damaged as he went. His back was stiff from sitting in the same position for so long, his index finger ached from scrolling, and he was nearly at the end of his wits. Removing his glasses and squeezing his tired eyes shut, Louis decided a break was much, much needed.

He glanced beside him. Harry had a deep frown on his face as he read, leaning too far near the screen to be healthy for his eyes. His leg was bouncing under the table and Louis could see his jaw clenching and unclenching every couple of seconds. He had obviously worked himself up. Louis wanted to suck out all the tension from his neck.

The chair scraped the floor as he got up. He squeezed Harry's shoulder when he passed him, rubbing a circle into the muscle to get to him to relax, but it didn't seem to have any visible effects. His brows pulled together. Maybe they should just retire to their beds.

Louis took out a water bottle from the fridge and gulped down half of it. The cool liquid was refreshing for his worn out body. He placed it back in, because it'd be better if they saved water, and pulled out a new one for Harry.

He put it down on the table beside him, and the man nearly jumped in surprise. It only made Louis worry about him more.

"Harry, love, you're overworking yourself," Louis placed both his hands on Harry's shoulders, thumbs working on the knots in the back of his neck. "We've done enough today. We are going to sleep now, okay?"

With a sigh, Harry rolled his head on his neck before spinning his chair around to face Louis. Bags were forming under his eyes and the wrinkles on his forehead hadn't completely disappeared even though he wasn't frowning anymore. "I haven't found anything yet. Still got quite a bit to look through."

He sounded disappointed in himself, like it was his responsibility to fix it. Like he was trying to make up for losing the capsule case. Louis knew nothing good would come out of it if they burned themselves out. "We _will_ find it. We've got time." His eyes snapped to the digital countdown timer mounted on the wall. 40:01:58. Not a lot of time, but still some. "Right now, we're sleeping. C'mon."

Louis held out a hand for Harry, but instead of taking it, he pulled his chair closer. Suddenly Louis was standing between Harry's legs with Harry's face buried in his torso and Harry's arms wrapped low around his waist.

For a second, he was frozen with shock. It wasn't unusual for Harry to initiate physical contact, but this felt too intimate. Especially after the events of today. He had feared things would turn awkward, and they had for a bit, but the way Harry was holding on to him said that they were alright.

Louis wasn't complaining. Not at all.

He quickly wound his arms around Harry's neck, hoping his hesitation wasn't caught. The other man sighed when Louis started gently scratching his scalp. Both of them were quiet then, cherishing the embrace. Harry's breaths were warm as they seeped into his shirt. His hands were just above the curve of Louis' ass and his inner thighs were pressed against the sides of Louis' knees. It was hard, so fucking hard, but Louis willed his body not to react to it in any way other than innocent.

Because it was a tired, stressed boy asking for comfort from his best friend. Louis getting hard against Harry's chest _from only a hug_ was sure to ruin things between them. And he could do it; he could ignore his moronic horny bundle of cells and be there for his friend when he needed him.

The urges weren't all sexual, though. He wanted to cup Harry's face and shower praises and assurances down on him. He wanted to carry him to bed and tuck him in. He wanted to play with Harry's hair until he was asleep. It was just as hard to hold himself back from these, if not more. 

Louis looked down at him, hoping he could catch a glimpse of his expression, or read his thoughts through the thick mop of curls. Anything to hint at what Harry was feeling. What _would you do, love, if I..._

He decided to find out for himself.

Leaning down, he pressed a long, firm kiss to the top of Harry's head. Then he straightened up, but not entirely, hunching over Harry almost in trepidation. For how touchy-feely they were otherwise, they rarely kissed each other. It just felt too intimate, blurring their already blurred line between best friends and something more. Louis didn't want to scare either of them away with the latter.

Harry stilled under him. Louis waited with bated breath for an awkward chuckle, or him pulling away, but there was no response for a long, torturous moment. 

He was already coming up with something to say to salvage the situation when Harry sighed again, and _nuzzled_ into his chest. Louis could only pray that he didn't feel the rapid beating of his heart, or the butterflies going crazy in his stomach.

"I'm so fucking tired, Lou," Harry mumbled, and yeah, no shit. 

A relieved smile worked its way over Louis' face. He ran a hand up and down Harry's spine, preparing to untangle. "Get your little ass up, then. We should go to bed, like, an hour ago."

Louis stepped back as Harry got up, looked away as he stretched and yawned. He sent Harry off to the bedroom, staying back to shut down the systems, to ensure everything was the way it should be, and they had not left any device on unnecessarily.

When Louis walked into the bedroom, his bed was already made, and Harry was passed out on his own. Fondness for the sweet boy crept up his chest, and if he let himself have a moment to stare at his peaceful face in the golden glow of the lamp, no one had to know.

He whispered a 'good night' into the air, and turned off the lamp. Swore to himself that he’d find them a way out tomorrow. A moment later, he himself was out like a light.

_...when his phone rang. He sighed tiredly, closing the fridge door with his hip before walking over to the living room._

_It was vibrating on the coffee table, the screen lit up with a video call from Niall. Harry took a seat on the couch, guessing he probably wanted to rant about the day, and answered._

_"Hi, Nialler."_

_"Hey, H." Niall gave him half a smile. "Sorry to call you so late. But it's Maddie."_

_That had him frowning with worry. He trusted Niall, and Maddie was a good kid, but you never knew._

_He felt Louis sitting down beside him, and a glance at his face told him he was just as concerned. Straightening up a bit, he asked, "What is it? Is she alright?"_

_"Oh yeah, no. She's completely fine," Niall reassured, and Harry sagged against Louis subconsciously. "Won't go to bed without talking to you guys, though. Says she met you at the park today?"_

_Harry exchanged a look with Louis. Of course, they'd expected it, had even discussed it a few days ago. But now it was the time to face it, and he wasn't sure how she would react. He'd spent months worrying about these three days. Not that it got him anywhere, but he hated feeling unprepared like he did at the moment. Everything would have been so much easier if Maddie hadn't met them at all._

_Louis took the lead like he always did. "Where is she? Could we talk to her?"_

_"Sure, mate. She's right here, your little monkey."_

_Niall held out his phone for Maddie, who was sitting on the ground playing with Theo. She made a face at him for calling her that, before her attention was drawn to the device. When she saw her parents on the screen, she squealed happily._

_"Daddy! Papa!"_

_"Hey, kiddo." Harry gave her a small wave. Just the sight of her had him grinning._

_"Madeleine, why are you not asleep yet?" Louis chided gently. "It's way past your bedtime."_

_"Because Uncle Niall wouldn't believe me!" She bounced slightly on her bum, affronted. "We met at the park, didn't we, Papa? Tell Niall that we met!"_

_Maddie thrust the phone into Niall's face for Louis to tell him. He did so with a chuckle. "Yes, babe, we met. She's right, Niall."_

_"See? And you had long hair, didn't you, Daddy?" She turned the camera to her and back to Niall in a quick motion, resulting in a very blurry video for a moment. It cleared out when she focused it on herself once again, gasping. "Daddy, where's your curls?!"_

_"Uh, it's gone, I guess." Suddenly under the spotlight, Harry could only manage a vague answer. He ran a hand through his hair, an old nervous habit, as he racked his brain for a believable lie._

_"Gone where?"_

_"It disappeared, sweetheart. Fairy magic, remember?" Louis covered for him, just like he had ten years ago. That conversation with Maddie came rushing back to Harry's mind. "It disappeared like Cinderella's dress and her carriage."_

_Maddie scowled at them, deep in thought. "But it's not midnight, Papa. Why did it disappear now?"_

_"The fairy told us it would disappear when we got back to our home." Harry continued the story they had made up, shrugging. "And it did."_

_"Oh." Her face fell, and Harry felt horrible for having cut his hair, for lying to her. She couldn't know, though, at least not yet. She was too young. Young enough that she got easily distracted by Niall when he ruffled her hair, a triumphant smile overcoming her face. "See? I told you we met."_

_"Alright, cupcake, I believe you." Off screen, Niall laughed. "Will you head to bed now?"_

_"Okay. Good night, Daddy. I love you. Good night, Papa. I love you."_

_"Good night, baby." Harry gave her a soft smile._

_"Love you too," Louis added, blowing her a kiss._

_There was a bit of rustling as she passed the phone back to Niall and raced Theo out of the room. Harry settled some more, resting his arm on the back of the couch. Louis took the invitation and snuggled up against his side, leaning his head on Harry's shoulder. He let out a relieved sigh into his husband's hair, glad to be done with that. For a while, at least, because this had been too easy. He was sure Maddie still had her doubts; their daughter was smart and stubborn, much like her Papa. Besides, they would have to confront her again, when she was older and ready. It would be years before it came to that, though, and he tried not to fret about it now._

_The camera focused on Niall's easy grin. "Again, sorry for that, mate. I just didn't know how to handle this. Told her you guys might be busy," he winked suggestively, "but she wouldn't have it."_

_"It's fine, we weren't 'busy'." Harry rolled his eyes. It had been on their agenda for today, obviously, but their bodies hadn't cooperated. Getting old sucked. "Too tired, to be honest. Just about to hit the bed."_

_"We might be busy tomorrow night, though." Louis wiggled his eyebrows at Harry, smirking._

_"Oh yeah?" Harry returned his smirk, dimple deep in his left cheek. If he could have his way, they'd hardly leave the bed tomorrow. Had to make up for today, somehow._

_"Yeah, I don't wanna hear nothing about that," Niall interrupted loudly from his end. "I hate being single enough already, don't need everyone to rub it in my face."_

_Harry laughed, though he did feel bad for having him babysit Maddie when he was already doing that for his brother's kid. Even someone who adored kids could admit that they could be quite the handful._

_"You should sleep, too, Horan. You look exhausted," Louis said in his soft, this-is-me-caring-about-you tone._

_"Right after the kids' favourite Irish stories."_

_"Thanks for doing this, mate. Couldn't thank you enough, honestly," Harry told him sincerely, the least he could do right now._

_Niall waved it away, scoffing. "Don't worry 'bout it."_

_They said their goodnights, then, taking pity on each other's weary faces. Harry could see Niall was holding back something he wanted to say, but he didn't have the energy to push it. Moreover, he knew Niall would talk about it if he wanted to._

_"Hey, hey, guys," He spoke up just as Harry was about to hang up. He glanced behind him to make sure the kids weren't around, then continued in a quiet voice. "Whatever Maddie was talking about, meeting you and shit. I know for a fact that you two were out of town for the whole day, so it couldn't have been you she met. Does it have something to do with… you know?"_

_Harry and Louis shared a look._

_"Yeah, Nialler."_

_"They're here."_

_Niall nodded, taking that information in. Then he pulled out something from his pocket and held it up. "She also brought me this..._

"All right," Louis said around a mouthful of eggs on toast. "Here's the game plan."

The morning sunshine lightened the green of Harry's eyes, making them look glassy. They were wide and attentive as Harry watched him over his cup of coffee, hanging on to his every word. Louis had to put in quite an effort to stay focused.

He had woken up feeling refreshed, and ready to tackle the day. While they finished up their morning chores side by side, he had a rough idea ready. After talking it over with Harry during breakfast and working out the details, they had a solid plan of action for the day.

When they stepped into town today, they were better prepared. They had covered up as much as they could without seeming suspicious, so they had a lower risk of getting recognised. Louis had found a pair of black jeans and a loose hoodie, which would hopefully help him melt into the crowd. He had to lose his glasses. It had been harder for Harry to put together an outfit that wasn’t eye catching, because most of his clothes were brightly coloured with quirky patterns. He’d settled on a pair of bell-bottomed blue jeans and one of Louis’ plain jumpers, which he had to tuck in to conceal how awkwardly short it was on him. But he pulled off the overall look, and the sight made Louis’ mouth water. They grabbed a pair of sunglasses each, and Harry hid away his curls in a bun under a beanie.

Now that Louis was looking at Little Sunmoore with a sharper eye and from a different point of view, he began noticing things he hadn't yesterday.

They didn't pass a lot of cars, but the ones they did pass seemed to be going at the exact same speed. Most of the drivers weren't even steering, and it reminded Louis of the couple he'd seen shagging. _Maybe autopilot_ is _trustable these days_.

There was a smartwatch on almost every wrist. Louis even saw one kid showing off his projection-based augmented reality watch. Harry had to physically stop him from going over and drooling all over it.

Solar panels were on rooftops, integrated into windows, mounted on walls. Overhead power lines were rare.

Instead of fuel stations, there were electric charging stations. Harry noticed that checks and plaids seemed to be back in fashion. Drones buzzed away above their heads, carrying packages for delivery. Louis spotted an old lady using an exoskeleton to walk. Technology was more present in everyday life, although in subtle ways.

He tried, as sneakily as possible, to click pictures of everything.

As much as he hated to admit it, the town didn’t completely suck. Some of the things he quite liked. For example the electric self driving cars, and that kid’s watch. The landscape and stone buildings added a certain charm to the place, and he decided it wasn’t the worst place to get settled in. 

But he could only imagine how cool London would be right now, and not getting to see was a real kick in the guts.

"Is this a good spot?"

They had spent the day scouting the town, collecting all information they could and trying to find a place to execute their plan. They had steered clear of the park. Some places were too crowded, some too deserted. Most of them didn't offer the level of concealment they needed. But this little nook in the corner of a quiet neighbourhood seemed perfect.

Harry glanced at the tablet in his hand, nodded. "There are three networks here. I’m gonna try the strongest one."

Louis had dozed through the tech training they had received, but thankfully Harry had not. He’d claimed that if they were within the range of a wifi network, he could most likely hack it. Once they were connected to the internet, a lot of things would be easier. Their whole plan depended on whether or not they would be able to do that.

Setting his bag by his feet, Harry settled on a low bench. Louis sat down beside him too, trying to get a peek. But he could make out more of what was happening by watching Harry's expressions than what he was doing on that device. Something had Harry frowning deeply, so Louis knew whatever it was wasn't good news. 

"What is it? Can we not get through?"

"This technology is ten years ahead of ours, Lou," Harry explained absentmindedly. "Obviously the security algorithms are more efficient."

 _What does that_ mean _though._ "Are you saying we can't have access?" 

The left side of Harry's lips curled up ever so slightly. "If you'd be a good boy, sit quietly and let me work, then maybe I could hack it."

Louis narrowed his eyes at 'good boy', a response sitting on the tip of his tongue. But he bit it back. This was not the time for banter. He busied himself with watching Harry's long fingers fly over the screen, typing here and there and clicking different buttons. Five minutes later, the little network icon turned blue. Harry had them connected to the 'You Will Regret This' WiFi network.

Louis whooped, patting Harry's back as a 'good job'. Harry threw him a smile, already on to the next part.

"Let's hope Google still exists," He muttered as he pulled the browser up.

The screen went white. Nothing happened for almost a minute and Harry started tapping randomly, praying for it to work. Then a message box popped up, big red letters claiming that their browser was outdated. At the bottom was a link for downloading the update, and Harry wasted no time clicking it.

"Do you realise what's happening, Lou?" Harry asked with a grin while the download began. "We'll be taking this software back with us. They could probably reverse engineer it and study this."

Louis thought about the implications. If the software engineers could figure it out, there would be an absolute upsurge in browser technology. "But isn't reverse engineering softwares illegal or something?"

"Sure is." Harry snorted. "But I don’t think they’ll want to miss out on this gold mine. God, look at that speed. It's such a huge update but it's already halfway done! I can't wait to live here."

Soon enough, the download was completed. Harry relaunched the application and the search engine was ready for them. Louis shuffled closer in excitement.

"Alright, let's see where the fuck we are." Harry typed in ‘Little Sunmoore’ and hit search.

The results loaded instantly. Wikipedia claimed that it was a small settlement in North Yorkshire, England, and gave a little history. There was a picture of the old church they had crossed, and beside it, the town’s location on the map. Harry’s thumb shot out to click on the latter and find the distance from here to London. 

Any and all hope died inside Louis' chest. They were three hundred miles, _five hours_ away from London. And that was with a car. He remembered seeing no mode of transport out of the town except by road. They had no means to travel that far that fast.

He sat back, heart sinking. "There's no way we can get there, is there."

Even if they did make it there, how would the lab receive them? Would they be prepared to welcome two men from the past? Would they agree to help them, would they be able to fix the GPS in time?

"Maybe we can find a way to contact someone?" Harry suggested.

Louis nodded eagerly. They couldn’t go to it, but maybe help could come to them. "Vikram, look up Vikram first."

Harry did. A hundred different people by the name of Vikram Malhotra showed up, but none of them were the man they were looking for. Even with keywords like ‘physicist’ or the name of the lab, they couldn’t find him.

"That’s… weird." These were not the results they’d get in their time. Vikram Malhotra, Supervising Researcher at Hawking Laboratories for Modern Physics, used to be one of the first results. 

_Had he died?_ Louis shook the ridiculous thought out of his head. Vikram couldn’t have died, bloody hell, he needed to stop being stupid.

Harry cleared the search bar and typed in ‘Emily Sandberg’. But once again, the results did not include the Emily they knew. They looked up other people from their team, but found no trace of anyone. It was getting more and more fishy with every search.

"What the fuck." Louis caught Harry’s eye, and he knew they were thinking the same thing. Something must’ve happened for all these people to just... disappear like this. Something must've definitely happened for Louis to settle down _here_.

Harry bit his lip. "Do you think we shou—"

"Yes." He knew it probably wasn’t a smart idea to directly look up themselves, but they needed to find what had happened, and what it meant for them. 

Breathing out, Harry cleared the search bar again. Louis felt a wetness on his arm as Harry began typing in his name. At first, he didn't pay it any mind, too absorbed in what they were doing. Though when a second drop fell on his cheek, he looked up to the sky. Clouds had gathered overhead, dark and about to pour down. He went to warn Harry, but the man had caught up too.

"Shit, shit, shit," Harry cursed as he quickly locked the tablet and stuffed it into his bag before the water could touch it.

Louis jumped into action too, gathering up their belongings as it began to rain. Their bags were waterproof, thankfully, but their clothes were not. By the time they shouldered their stuff and started running to find shelter, Louis could feel the dampness seeping into his shirt.

As he was looking around for the nearest shade, he couldn't help but note that everyone else seemed to be either inside, or already prepared for the rain. But he didn't have time to analyse it, because Harry was pulling him a different way.

Thunder rolled as they hurried towards a cafe half a block away. In the back of his mind, Louis knew going there meant unwanted social interactions, but the warm glow coming from inside was calling to him.

They were more than halfway there when a voice cut through the rain to them. "Harry? Is that you?"

Panicking momentarily, Louis slowed and watched a bright yellow car pull up to them over his shoulder. It lurched to a stop a few metres ahead of them. The driver was an old, frail looking man with sunken cheeks and more wrinkles on his face than he had hair on his head. He had rolled his window down a little so he could squint at them and shout, "What are you boys doing out in the rain? Get in, I'll drop you to your home."

Louis almost _felt_ his eyes light up. He saw more reasons to take up that offer than not. It was bloody pouring, the car definitely had a heater, and this nice old bloke was offering to take them _home_. To their future house, where Louis had wanted to go since yesterday. They hadn't been able to contact their colleagues, they couldn't go to London, so their last chance was going to their older selves. This was clearly a sign from the universe.

So obviously, he made to enter the car, and obviously, Harry yanked him back by his arm before he could even get a hand on the door handle.

The force of Harry's pull almost made Louis slam into him. It left mere inches between their faces, and time itself stilled for Louis to take in the sight that wet Harry Styles made. Water slid down the deep creases between his furrowed brows and dripped down his sharp nose. His eyelashes were sticking together as he blinked repeatedly to keep his vision clear, and his eyes were dark and intense as he glared at Louis. Little drops travelled down his cheeks, some fell off his chin while others settled on his lips.

Louis leaned away before he could think about how warm Harry's breaths felt against his face as he panted, or start wanting to kiss those wet lips. Trying to pull himself free, he whisper-shouted, "H, what—" 

"What are _you_ doing?!" Harry hissed back at him, grip tightening around Louis' arm as he tried to shake some sense into him. "We can't go with him!"

"Why, though? This is literally an omen!" He wasn't in the mood to argue right now. Their ticket to all the solutions was standing _right there_ , and Harry was being fucking difficult.

"You know damn well why!" Harry had his what-the-actual-fuck-Louis face on. "And since when do you even believe in omens?"

"Since now." The horn honked behind them. Louis was left with no choice but to pull Harry with him as he opened the door and set one foot inside. "Get in the bloody car, Styles, c'mon."

Harry stumbled for a moment and lost his grip on Louis. All fight left him when Louis pointedly sat his arse down on the back seat and beckoned him in with a stern look. He could see Harry was far from happy about the situation, but he stepped in the car nonetheless.

"Oi. I'm not a bloody cab driver!" The old man shouted from his seat, watching them through the rearview mirror. He patted the passenger seat. "Get over here, Harry."

Harry glanced back at him, eyes wide, and Louis couldn't hold back a snort. Their scuffle was forgotten, at least for the time being. He nodded towards the front of the car. Harry looked ridiculously distressed as he stepped out again and closed the door, and Louis wanted to roll his eyes and tell him the stranger was not a serial killer.

While Harry jogged to the passenger door and got in quickly, Louis settled into the seat, taking in the cluttered interior of the car. Just above the windshield, he could make out the words "Carl the Cabbie", but they looked like glue residue from an old sticker which was recently removed. A crucifix hung crookedly from the rear view mirror. Banana peels, a hip flask, magazines, and other knick-knacks littered the dark dashboard. The steering wheel had a floral cover, and there were colourful crayon marks on the leather seats. The radio played a song he didn’t recognise.

The old man, apparently called Carl, started the heat for them as he began driving jerkily. Louis scooted to the middle of the backseat to absorb as much warmth as he could.

"Thanks a lot, Carl." Louis tested, hoping he had got the name right. "Sorry about your seats, though."

He didn’t give any reaction to the name, only waved Louis’ apology off. "What were you doing out there anyway? Did you forget it's seeding day today?"

 _Seeding day?_ There was a pause, both Harry and Louis at a loss as to what was that supposed to be.

"Yeah! We totally forgot it was, uh, seeding day," He quickly agreed, whatever that meant, not wanting to seem suspicious.

"Oh dear, it reminds the old times when we had no idea when it was going to rain. Used to get wet all the time." The man laughed, more air than sound. "Now they just make it rain whenever, wherever they want. Takes away all the fun from the weather."

Then it clicked. Seeding day. They seeded clouds and made it rain artificially in the future. Louis knew because the technique had been discovered a long time ago, but it hadn't become a _thing_ yet in their time. From what it sounded like, it happened here often enough for it to become a part of people's daily lives.

Why would they need to do it, though? Had they fucked up the atmosphere that bad? Did it not rain enough naturally? He added those to the list of questions he had for their future selves.

Carl squinted at Harry, staring at his face until Harry gave him a small, uncomfortable smile. After a single glance to the road, he shifted his hard stare to Louis through the rearview mirror. "Are my eyes failing me or do you lads look different? Almost younger?"

His eyes were definitely not failing. He was so old, why were they not failing? Louis didn’t want them to be the topic of discussion, needed to distract him. So he teased, "I'm sure everyone looks like a teenager compared to you, old chap."

"Heyyy, no," Harry scolded him over his shoulder, then turned to the stranger. "Don't listen to him, Carl. You don't look a day over twenty."

Fortunately, that did the trick. "I certainly do not _feel_ a day over twenty. It’s them bloody tablets. But my family doesn't understand that!"

In ten minutes, they’d crossed to a different part of the town, and Carl had not stopped talking. Louis apparently knew his grandson, who was a very smart little boy, but had spilt paint over Carl’s favourite pair of trousers. Jonathan’s cat had died. The pie Harry had sent last week was a little too spicy. Ruth was complaining to her husband about Carl driving again but he didn’t care. Louis had no fucking idea what the man was on about but he was enjoying the chat nonetheless. It felt like Carl didn’t have many people to talk to. Which was a shame, because Louis thought he was a great conversationalist, and had a cheeky, unapologetic sense of humour that only developed after living a lifetime. He’d got Louis engrossed in gossip about people he didn’t even know.

Harry, for the most part, ignored him. Louis' skin prickled with it.

Carl was comparing Ruth’s cooking skills with his late wife’s in such detail that Louis didn’t notice they had arrived. He only moved to get out of the car after the old man barked at them to leave, claiming he had more important places to be. 

"Thank you so much, Carl," Harry told him as they stood outside the car. The rain had lowered to a much more bearable drizzle. "How much do we owe you?"

"Who are you?" Carl scowled at them, looking distrustful all of a sudden. Louis’ heart stopped for a split second. He was a smart man and Louis was sure they had been caught. They had done something wrong and he had noticed and he was gonna ask them questions they didn't know answers to and then they'll get turned in to the authorities. They were done for.

"I am _not_ a bloody cab driver. If you ask to pay me, you're never getting in this car again." 

Louis nearly pressed a hand to his chest in relief.

"I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t mean to offend you in any way," Harry said sincerely.

The old man nodded. "I’m forgiving you because this is the first time you’re making this mistake."

 _After the scare you just gave us? Obviously, we haven’t._ Louis kept the thought to himself.

"Now go in and warm yourself up, lads. Have a good night."

With that, Carl Not-A-Cabbie drove off, leaving them to it. Harry didn’t even spare him a glance before turning to the house they’d been brought to. With a sigh, Louis did too.

Every time Louis had imagined the house he'd be living in when he'd be forty, it was nothing less than Tony Stark's. He'd pictured lots of metal and glass, sleek angles and sharp edges. He'd imagined it homey, but still tech-centric. Everything from the temperature to the security would be controlled by the latest home automation system. It would be an extension of himself.

Now, ever since finding out he lived in this tiny town, his expectations had lowered considerably. The house in front of them still managed to disappoint him.

It was second to last in a row of bungalows. Like most buildings in town, it was a stone structure with only a sprinkle of modernity. Tall, arched windows looked out from the front wall, and the roof was slated. A stone fence ran around the property, giving a sense of privacy.

Seriously, what had happened to him?

Harry pushed the wrought iron gate open and stormed down the brick pathway. "I truly do hate you sometimes."

 _Here we go_. "Harry—"

"You _promised_ we wouldn’t, Louis!"

"That was when I thought we had other options!" Louis threw his arms out as they neared the house. "What do you want me to do, H? We’re running out of time, we can’t get out of here, we can’t contact anyone, and you won’t let us ask our future selves because— I don’t even know why."

He thought he knew why, but he hoped he was wrong.

"It’s no fucking use talking to you," Harry spat, leaning against the wall well away from the door, crossing his arms across his chest. "Go do what you want to and let’s get out of here." 

Louis felt like pulling his hair out. They didn’t have time for this shit. They were finally here, so close to all the answers they needed, and Harry Styles was throwing a fucking tantrum.

He turned to the door with a clenched jaw. If this is how Harry wanted it to go, so be it; he was going to get what he came here for. He raised a hand to knock, but…

...stopped. No matter the reason, he had broken a promise, and Harry’s trust with it. Hadn’t even given him a say before dragging them here. It was already a risk, coming here knowing that what they might find would strain their friendship, and Louis didn’t want to go in while Harry was mad at him too. How could they face their future, probably married selves while Harry didn't want to as much as talk to him? He had to fix things between them.

Closing his eyes, he breathed out his temper. He came to stand next to Harry, and made sure his voice was calm. "Look, I know we should've discussed this beforehand, and I'm really sorry I didn't. But there wasn't enough time, H. And given everything, this is the best I can come up with. Unless you have a better idea. It's not too late to turn back."

Harry let his gaze fall to the ground from where he'd been glaring into the distance. He took a moment to process Louis' words. It was so selfless of him to do, considering he didn't like the situation at all.

"No, you're right. This is our best bet," He acknowledged after a beat, running a hand through his hair and turning his body to face Louis. He still didn't meet Louis' eyes. "Maybe I overreacted, I'm sorry. But I dunno, I'm just…"

He trailed off, struggling to find words. Louis couldn't help himself, he stepped closer and placed his hand on Harry's forearm. "If you're scared about what I think you're scared about, then there's no need to be." At that, Harry finally looked at him, eyes wide and alert. Louis softened his voice even more. "It's just us, Harry." 

Louis was worried about them too, he was. But his priority was getting them to their own present. To have Harry make it back there safely, even if it meant he never talked to him again.

Harry's face became so uncharacteristically devoid of emotion that Louis could hardly recognise him. He kept staring at Louis without a word. Then he looked away, nodding. 

But that wasn't enough. Louis had to make sure he was okay with this. "Yeah? You wanna go through with this?"

Harry gave him half a smile, and shook his head. "But we have to, don't we?"

They did. Although now Louis himself wished they had another option, just so Harry stopped looking so pained. But they had to.

When Louis did knock on the wooden double doors, Harry was standing right beside him. They waited, holding their breaths, but the doors didn’t open. No one even called from the inside. Glancing at Harry’s anxious face for permission, Louis repeated the action. Still zero response.

"Do you think they're not home?" Harry asked when the third knock went unanswered.

"We can wait for them." Not like they had anything more beneficial to do. He rolled on the balls of his feet with the nervous energy. "And snoop around meanwhile."

Harry raised an eyebrow at him. "Pretty sure that'd be an invasion of privacy."

"Whose privacy? Future me says we're welcome to snoop as much as we like."

Maybe the house was more interesting from the inside. Only, they had to be careful of the neighbours. If someone saw them snooping around their own house, future them would have a hard time explaining that.

"Next you'll ask me to break in," Harry said, words carefully laced with the teasing tone.

Louis gave him a similarly cautious smile. "If need be."

His answering smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, and Louis didn’t know if it was better or worse. He saved the overthinking for later. They needed to get a move on.

So he turned his back to the door. "If you take the right, I'll take the left?"

The other man simply nodded before he headed in his assigned direction. After a moment of watching him go, Louis did the same.

At the left side of the property was a well-maintained lawn. The rain had freshened up the grass and the trees lining the boundary wall. Decorative pieces and kids’ toys were strewn about. A big bush laden with pink and purple blooms covered one far corner, while a cosy patio was situated on the other.

Louis stayed close to the wall, moving in spy style, to keep out of the dying drizzle and avoid being spotted. He passed a couple of windows, but it was too dark inside to make out anything.

But there was a dim light coming from the bay window, towards the back of the house. He walked over, careful to keep his steps soft in case someone was, in fact, home. Pressing his back to the wall, he took a peek. What he saw made his eyes go wide, his mouth go dry and his brain go haywire with sensual information.

Inside, the room was lit up by the weak light of the bedside lamp. The window was shut, so he couldn't hear, but the curtains were open and he could see. His future self was in bed, stark naked. Hovering above him, just as bare, was future Harry. Their mouths were caught in a heated kiss, their chests pressed together. Future Louis had his legs wrapped around his Harry's waist, whose feet dug into the bed as he thrust fast and deep into the smaller man under him.

He saw himself throwing his head back with a moan and gripping Harry's hair on a particularly hard thrust, and he saw Harry pull back a little to admire what he was doing to him. He said something to future Louis, who said something back, before their eyes locked on each other.

The look they shared was something so special, so powerful, that Louis felt like he was intruding. But could it be considered intruding even if he was looking at his own future experience? Whatever the answer may be, he couldn't bring himself to look away for the life of him. It was like all of his dirty dreams from the past ten years were playing out right in front of him.

What seemed like hours later, Harry found him still rooted to his spot, watching the future men love each other through their bodies. He came up to him so quietly, and Louis was so distracted by what he was seeing that he didn't register his presence until he hissed out his name. 

"Lou," came the deep voice, causing him to almost jump. "Did you find anything?"

Harry glanced inside, and Louis was in too much of a shock and panicked from his friend's sudden appearance to stop him fast enough. Harry's eyes widened, his body went rigid, before he quickly averted his eyes. A moan slipped out to them, weakened by the barrier of the window glass. Louis didn't wait to think how loud it originally must have been, or what— _who_ —caused it. He turned on his heels and started striding towards the main gate.

_Fuck damn shit fuck shit fuck fuck fuck!_

With every step, he cursed, because what the fuck. What the actual fuck had he just witnessed? How was this real life? Harry and him, they were really real. They were _together_. They were married, lived together, had a freaking child together.

No. Not them, no. Their future selves. But how?!

He was aware of Harry’s footsteps behind him, painfully so. The same Harry who saw Louis as his best friend and nothing more. The same Harry who’d be fucking him into the mattress in a decade. The same Harry who’d tried to stop him from coming here but he, once again, hadn’t fucking listened.

"Louis," the same Harry called now, but he didn’t stop or turn around. What could he have to say? What could they possibly talk about now? How they were destined to be together? Or how they weren’t right now? 

Before he’d knocked, he’d told himself that whatever happened, he wouldn’t act out. That he had to stay focused and make sure they found a fix. But now he felt like he was gonna explode in a mess of ugly emotions and unrequited feelings that he had been bottling up for years. 

He’d tried so bloody hard to keep all that to himself — all those moments when Harry had smiled at him with stars in his eyes that made Louis want to give him the world; all the times when he’d burned with jealousy while Harry kissed someone else. All the daydreams he’d had just from looking at him, and all the ache in his heart when he’d come crashing down to reality. Louis had never let any of it show because he knew Harry didn’t want that from him. Even though it hurt, he’d resigned to that fact ages ago. Harry didn’t want _him._

None of that mattered now, did it? All this time he’d tortured himself trying to hold back, it was in vain. They were gonna end up together. Nothing Louis did or did not would matter. There was only one outcome. Their future was decided and now they knew what it would be. Might as well kiss Harry right this second like he'd always wanted to.

That thought made him stop in his tracks. While he’d stormed along blindly, his world had reduced to Harry and him and his thoughts and his feelings. The surroundings faded in, and he saw he’d walked a short distance back the way they had come.

As he wheeled around, he didn’t even realise how out of control he’d spiralled. All he knew was that he was inches away from Harry. Gorgeous Harry with his mesmerizing green eyes and his damp hair sticking to his face. Lovely, kind Harry with his brows furrowed in hesitant concern. The guy Louis had known for thirteen years, the person he was closest to in the world. The man he liked too much to risk their friendship.

There was no risk. Harry must like him back. Right?

Louis didn’t think further than that. In a flash, he stepped forward, grabbed Harry’s jumper, and pressed his lips to Harry’s.

Almost instinctively, his hands came up to cup Louis’ face. Harry’s lips didn’t move against his, but Louis was too busy just _feeling_ them to notice. Harry held him for a moment, like he was stunned, before pushing him away roughly.

"What the fuck, Louis?!" 

There was a scandalised look on his face, and it pierced right through Louis’ heart. Reality slapped him across the face. Instead of his dirty dreams, suddenly it was his nightmare playing out. Harry shook his head, stepping backwards and turning away as if he couldn’t bear to even look at Louis.

Louis’ body filled with cold lead. If Harry had liked him back, he would’ve returned the kiss. If Harry had liked him back, he wouldn't have pushed him away as he had, wouldn’t have looked at him so betrayed and hurt and disgusted. If Harry had liked him back, he wouldn’t be bolting down the road at the moment, trying to get as far from Louis as he could.

_He does not like me at all._

Almost in a trance, Louis followed.

Never in their lives had Harry been so beyond his reach. Neither physically, nor emotionally. But now, Harry was walking several meters away, and it was clear he wanted it that way. Louis could see him bringing his hands up to his face again and again, wiping the tears away, and he couldn’t even soothe him. _He_ was the reason Harry was hurting so much, and it was killing him. He had fucked up.

Louis’ mood was gloomier than the sky. The entire walk back, he didn’t dare close the distance between them, much less talk to Harry. When they found a camping spot in the forest, Harry took out the station, placed it in position, and moved away without a word. Louis did the rest.

As soon as it was ready, Harry hurried inside. He didn't even turn on any lights before heading straight to the bedroom. If there had been a door, Louis was sure he would've slammed it behind him.

He wasn’t invited inside. He had no appetite. He was in no state to work on the GPS. He had become a mess of ugly emotions and unrequited feelings. So he let his bag drop to the floor and settled on the couch. If he was gonna wallow in his misery, might as well get comfortable.

Harry didn't like him that way. Never had, and Louis knew that. He _knew_ that. Then why had he kissed him? What _madness_ had seized him to do that? Harry, no doubt, hated him now. He won’t talk to him, won’t look anywhere in his direction. He would never forgive him; hell, Louis would never forgive himself. It was his own fault that had cost him the most important person in his life. God, he had fucked everything up.

As he laid on the couch, Vikram's words echoed in his mind, like a sick prophecy fulfilled. _There could be consequences that we haven't even thought of._ Future was always unpredictable, but this… this was inconceivable. Louis had imagined dinosaurs and nuclear wars, but never in his wildest dreams he could've expected this happening. Weren’t Harry and him invincible?

Apparently not as much as he’d thought.

He wrapped his arms around himself, cradling red, bleeding, broken pieces in the semblance of his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that didn't end well lmao


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> louis has two broken hearts and a broken gps to fix

Louis woke up to the faint sounds of dishes clattering. He blinked his eyes open, finding himself on the couch. A heavy feeling washed over him as soon as he remembered why he was here instead of his bed, like the gut instinct in the morning that predicts today's gonna be a bad day. He sat up and rubbed his hands down his face.

Dishes still clattered behind him, and he realised it must be Harry fixing them breakfast. His body stiffened at the mere thought of being in the same space as him after the disaster that was last night. 

Louis could feel the almost broken string of their friendship stretched taut with the tension between them, the ends held together by one last thread – how they dealt with this. But where would they go from here? Convinced as he was of his best friend not being interested in spending his life with him, he couldn't imagine anything happening to change his mind. And to think their future selves were living just a few kilometres away, happily married and with a fucking kid.

He didn't move from his spot for a long time, hoping Harry would leave him some food and retreat back into his room. He had no idea how to face him again, and hated that they'd come to this point in their relationship. _Maybe travelling to the future wasn't that good an idea after all._

Louis kept waiting, but Harry didn't exit the kitchen. One part of him wanted to run from this problem, far enough so he could pretend that it disappeared. But the other part of him was scared that along with his troubles, he'd be leaving Harry behind. That was something he knew he could never make peace with. So he sat there waiting, blaming the universe for this nuisance and begging it to show him a way out.

What he got in answer was Harry appearing beside him, silently holding out a cup of steaming tea. And… what was that supposed to mean, they were pushing _this_ under the rug? Did Harry really want to forget this happened and never talk about it? Their own fucking future?!

 _No._ He couldn't allow this. It was too important to flush away with tea. He couldn't leave Harry behind. And if an emotion-filled confrontation was what's needed for a chance to keep him, then he was ready to do that too.

Instead of the cup, he grabbed Harry's wrist. "I think we should talk, Harry."

Harry's eyes snapped up from the ground to Louis' face, wide and unsure. Neither of them had denied a cuppa, their white flag, ever before. He looked taken aback at Louis' action, like he'd rather be running away to another dimension, but Louis' hold on him stopped him. Louis hated it, hated that his best fucking friend didn't even want to talk to him anymore. His cracked heart hurt inside his chest.

"Please, H." Louis kept his voice soft, stroked the inside of Harry's wrist to… calm him, convince him. Something like that. "We can't brush _this_ away. We'll have to address this, sooner or later."

The man didn't respond, though his eyes followed the caressing motion of Louis' thumb. Louis watched him as he waited for an answer, watched as Harry's face crumpled into a frown, his lips quivering. Another wave of pain hit him when he recognised the signs of Harry on the edge of crying. He hadn't meant for that to happen, for fuck's sake, he felt even more horrible.

"It doesn't have to be now, yeah?" He quickly added in hopes of amending things. "We can do it later, maybe when we go back, but… I just think we should. At some point."

Harry took in a big gulp of air, blinking rapidly for a moment. He nodded. Then shook his head, sitting down on the couch, well away from Louis.

"Let's just do it now. Get it over with." He placed the cup on the table and turned to face Louis expectantly.

Their eyes caught on one another's, and for a while Louis knew nothing but green. Harry broke the moment by dropping his gaze, and that brought Louis back to reality. Right. They were supposed to talk. Harry was waiting for him to take the lead, like he always did. But for the first time in his life, Louis was blank.

Blank because there was too much to say but no proper way to say it, too much at stake even if he somehow got it all out. Blank because everything was a giant mess like a tangled thread and Louis couldn't find an end to latch on to, somewhere to begin their conversation. Blank because he wasn't good at this shit, okay?

They were quiet, stealing glances and looking away and sometimes getting caught. Memories from last night played like a nightmare in his mind, the most haunting one being their kiss. Being pushed away, rejected. It had been his own fault, though, and an apology was the least of what Harry deserved.

"I'm sorry, Harry," He started, plain and simple and to the point. "I'm so fucking sorry for last night. I'm sorry for not listening to you. I'm sorry I kissed you like that. I know I shouldn't have, but… the house… what we saw fucked with my mind, you know? And I didn't think it through."

Harry scoffed humourlessly. "Do you ever?"

"You have every right to be mad at me," Even Louis was mad at himself. "But please, I need you to talk to me. Shout at me, scream at me, but talk to me. I feel like I'm losing you and… you’re my best friend, Harry. I just don't wanna lose you. Please."

"You _kissed me_ , Louis.” Harry’s voice wavered with his words. “Do people kiss their _best friends_ like that?”

"I—” Louis caught himself before he could admit that Harry was so much more than his best friend. So, so much more; he was _everything_. But that’s not what Harry wanted to hear right now. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “No, H. I am sorry for what I did. I'm just trying to say that I respect your feelings. If you don't wanna—"

"You don't know shit about my feelings, Louis!" He exploded suddenly. "You would have, you know, if you had stopped and bothered to ask me last night. Instead you fucking kissed me, just because you thought you could. Just because you saw the future us fucking!"

He hadn't kissed him because he realised they'd end up together. Not entirely, at least. What they saw gave him a sick reassurance, a hope he never had that maybe Harry would reciprocate. But he couldn't exactly tell him that at the moment, could he? "I know that's what I did wrong, Harry, and that's what I'm apologising for. I don't even care what we saw there, not anymore. If you don't want anything more between us, then I won't push."

"I don't—" He shook his head incredulously, getting up and starting to pace up and down. "How would you even know what I want, you've never asked. I've always just given you back whatever you gave me first, because I didn't wanna push _you_. Because I know you don't want what I want. You've never given me anything more than best mates, so why is it suddenly me who's stopping us?"

He couldn’t be saying what Louis thought he was saying, right? Years of them together flashed in Louis’ mind. From bright-eyed students in America, to young men ready to change the world, to adults with a hundred problems and a thousand accomplishments, not one day stood out to him when Harry had even hinted at having feelings for him. 

And yet here he was, apparently having held himself back all this time for Louis’ sake. But what were all those boyfriends about, then? Why did he push him away last night, when Louis finally made a move?

"How would I know you wanted more than best mates? What signs did you give me? You're always in a relationship with someone or the other, or always going out on dates—"

"Because I can't bear going to bed alone every night knowing that you're sleeping with a random guy!" Harry spat, glaring at him with hurt etched on his face. The words left Louis dumbfounded, and for a moment, Harry himself looked surprised at what he’d said. He turned away abruptly, beginning to fuss with the stove. "None of those relationships lasted, anyway, none of those people mattered. None of them were you. None of them could change how I felt about you. All you had to do was ask, Louis!"

Okay, he was definitely saying what Louis thought he was saying, what he had thought he'd never say. Maybe it had taken him too long to acknowledge his feelings, and by then it had been too late. He’d sent out all the wrong signals to Harry. He couldn’t blame him for trying to move on, could he?

"Why should I have asked when I know I don't deserve you anyway?" Louis asked quietly, and Harry stilled. "D'you have any idea how brilliant you are? How threatened I was by you in uni?” He got up and slowly made his way to him. “How much you still amaze me? How you're still so fucking out of my league?" 

"Out of your league?!” Harry whirled around, eyes simultaneously wet and burning. “Louis Tomlinson, you've had me right in the palm of your hand for twelve years out of the thirteen I've known you. And you're telling me I'm _out of your league?_ "

“You’ve—” It made Louis stop in his tracks. “How long have you—”

“Twelve fucking years!” Harry clutched the countertop, tears now freely streaming down his face. “Twelve years of liking my best friend as more than a friend. Of seeing him be with anyone but me. Of not wanting to ruin our friendship but wanting you so much I thought it’d fucking kill me—” 

"You want me?" Louis all but shouted.

"I do!" Harry yelled back.

The next second, Louis was in his space, cupping his face. "Have me, then. Please."

Harry’s eyes widened and he started to lean away. “Lou—”

“I’m not saying this because I saw us together, Harry.” Louis shook his head, not letting him move. “I didn’t kiss you because of that either. I did that because _I want you_. And I’ve wanted you forever. I just never thought this would ever be reciprocated, not until last night. Yes, it was absolutely moronic of me to throw myself at you like I did. But love, just the prospect of you liking me back was enough to make me go apeshit. I want you so fucking much, H, and if you let me—”

Harry smashed their mouths together and cut him off. Louis had been so caught up in his speech that it took him a second to register that Harry was kissing him. _Harry was kissing him._

It was so different from yesterday's kiss, so much better. The hands that had pushed him away were now pulling him close. The lips that had been frozen were now sucking on his, punishing him for taking so goddamn long to get here. And Louis was just trying to keep up with it all, holding the back of Harry’s head and pouring apologies and promises into his mouth.

Just as suddenly as he’d initiated it, Harry broke the kiss. “But I-I don’t understand.”

“Ask me, ask me anything.” He wanted absolutely no walls between them.

"We met our daughter, Lou. _Our daughter_.” There were fascinated stars in Harry’s eyes, just like two days ago. Louis’ lips curved up at the memory. “How were you barely affected? I could hardly think about anything else for _hours_ but you— you were already thinking about the bloody GPS."

“I wasn’t. I swear to you I wasn’t just ‘barely affected’.” Louis brushed his thumb in the salty wetness under his eye. “I think being with you like that, even for just a few moments, it’s made me a family man. You know I never was one.”

Harry sniffled into his hand. "The next day, at the house? I didn’t think I’d survive seeing us together like that. And you were still only focused on the GPS problem. It hurt so fucking bad, you know. I felt like even that meant nothing to you. How is it always so easy for you to ignore things?"

"It’s not easy, not at all.” Louis gave him a sad smile. “It’s just better to ignore it all together than to torture myself with thoughts of something I could never have."

"But you could have! You— you wanker!" Harry cried, flipping them so Louis was pressed against the counter. "You just had to say the word and I'd have come running to you. Why didn't you?"

"I was _scared_ , smart ass. Thought I'd lose you."

It would be like losing the ability to breathe. Why would anyone intentionally jeopardise that?

"Never, Lou." Harry shook his head frantically, like it was absolutely vital that Louis understood this. "You'd never lose me."

“I thought I did. When you didn’t kiss me back yesterday. When you pushed me away." Harry shut his eyes at those words, shaking his head subtly. "Why, H? If you like me too, then why?"

"I didn't even think that you could be kissing me because you wanted to. The house fucked me up too, you know." Harry let out a gurgle of laughter, sheepishly meeting his gaze. "I guess I was a scared wanker too."

Louis didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He settled on kissing Harry again. It was a new level of passionate, like they both were making up for years of having gone without. Harry’s arms were wound around his waist, and his shirt was fisted in Louis’ hands as they grappled to get as close as possible. He let his lips part under Harry’s. While his tongue explored the insides of his mouth, he ignored his blood rushing downwards in his body. Now was not the time.

The kiss softened to little pecks, to breathing against each other's lips with their foreheads pressed together. Louis slowly blinked his eyes open, and went a little cross-eyed as he gazed at the man in his arms. Even with his nose a bright pink and his face blotchy from crying, Harry was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. And he was his. To look after, to cherish, to love.

"I didn't mean to make you cry, darling." Louis thumbed away the tear rolling down Harry's cheek. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry for shouting at you," Harry whispered back, still sniffling. "I feel bad."

"Don't. I deserved it."

"You deserved it," Harry agreed with a soft laugh. "But I don't like fighting with you. Couldn't even sleep last night."

"Yeah, likewise." Louis nodded with a serious face. "The couch isn't comfortable. Now my back's all messed up."

Harry snorted wetly, pushing at his shoulder. "You're an asshole."

With a smile, Louis pulled him against himself, wrapping his arms tight around his neck and burying his face there.

They weren’t defined yet. They were more than best mates now, obviously, but Louis wasn’t sure if Harry was ready to commit. It hadn’t been long since his last relationship ended. He didn’t have the heart to bring it up at the moment, because the morning had had emotions galore. But he would, and soon; wouldn’t keep Harry waiting again.

For now, though, "Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"Please tell me it didn't take us creating a fucking time machine to figure out our shit." The universe had to literally rub it in their faces for them to admit it to one another. "How are we so smart, and yet so dumb?" 

He felt Harry's chest shaking with laughter before he heard it. He found he quite liked that.

Reluctantly, they pulled away to finish the breakfast Harry had started making. It took them a while to do, since both of them insisted on kissing or touching someway or the other every few seconds. Every time they'd part, Harry would giggle giddily and Louis couldn't help but feel fucking butterflies erupt in his stomach.

Eating breakfast was just as drawn-out. Harry had hooked his ankles with Louis’ under the table, and was shamelessly making heart eyes at him. Louis was sure he was doing the same, if not worse. His smile refused to go down as they chatted softly, like they had all the time in the world, about topics they’d never dared approach before.

Things turned serious again when, after they were done, Louis’ gaze found the timer and reminded him of their situation. Harry was at the counter, cleaning up, while he sat at the table, brainstorming. Last night, instead of sleeping, he’d been questioning why everything had to happen the way it had. Because it had felt like a conspiracy of the universe to take Harry away from him. Why’d they have to witness what they did? Why’d they have to land exactly where the future them lived?

And that’s when it had struck.

"Why did QuSTiN bring us here, Harry, when we intended to go to London?"

"I dunno, Lou. Something must have gone wrong during our jump." Harry wet a rag under the tap. "We got the date we wanted, just not the location. I'm sure it's just a little malfunction, though. We'll look into it when we get back."

Louis watched him putter around, his leg bouncing. There was an idea building in his mind, an idea that was crazy, even by their standards. But he couldn't get it out of his head.

Maybe if he'd tell Harry, he'd say Louis was being silly and they'd laugh it off.

"What if… what if it wasn't a malfunction?" He asked, wringing his hands.

Harry's movements slowed. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it, Harry. If it was simply a fault in our machine, there are millions of other places where we could've ended up. What are the odds we'd land where our future selves live? What if the machine, or just some… some law of the universe, some link between us and our future selves purposefully brought us to them?"

What if there was no other option? What if, no matter where in the world they want to go, they'd always be sent to their counterparts of that time? One person cannot exist in different places at the same instant, after all. What if this was the universe's way to ensure that that basic rule was satisfied?

During his rant, Harry had turned around with a frown on his face. He stared at Louis, but didn't give any other reaction to the theory. 

"Wait, no, sorry. The odds are all equal. We could've landed anywhere, it's just a weird coincidence that it happened to be here." Louis rubbed his temples. He could feel his brain whirring inside his skull, but it didn't feel pleasant. "I'm sorry. I know I'm being silly. I've been a mess since last night and nothing is making sense. Sor—"

"No, no Louis. Hold that thought." Harry dropped the rag on the counter and came to sit across from him. "It's… wow. There's so much to unpack here."

"Babe, c'mon. It's illogical."

"No it's not. I mean, it could be a coincidence, but just as easily, it could actually mean something." Harry leaned forward with his forearms resting on the table. There was that shine in his eyes that he got every time he made a breakthrough, or talked about his passions, that inspired and motivated Louis. "There could be a possibility… What if it's why the GPS isn't working, because it isn't operating on the right logic? What if we had gone a hundred years in the future like you wanted? Would we have ended up at our graves?"

Louis leaned in too, excitement starting to build in his stomach. "Or would we be free to go anywhere, since we wouldn't be technically existing that time?"

"What if we'd traveled back in time?" Harry grinned. "I'd love to meet baby Louis. I've seen your pictures, you were so cute."

"You're getting distracted, Styles." Louis rolled his eyes, letting his lips turn up only a little. "Besides, we didn't even live in the same place when we were kids. Where would the machine take us to? Cheshire or Doncaster?"

"Our respective homes, maybe?" 

"Separate us, you mean."

"It's a possibility, is all I mean."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of that." Louis rapped his knuckles on the table, dropping his gaze. "Don't know what I'd do without you."

Harry smiled, reaching out to hold Louis' hand across the table. "Good thing you never have to do that, then, huh?"

"I suppose." The warm feeling in his gut erupted as soft, flustered laughter which he had to cover with his free hand. Through crinkled eyes, he saw Harry grin at him fondly and squeeze his hand. 

Unloading his postulations felt nice. It didn’t help solve their problem in any way, but it was new food for thought. Something to work on when— _if_ —they got back.

Louis glanced at the timer again. 04:39:27 and no lead. Plus, he had spewed out this brand new theory that had so many loose ends. His brain was in overdrive, trying to find a way out, trying to make sense of this new discovery, trying to process everything and not being able to process anything. He felt overwhelmed. Wished things had been simpler.

"I feel like I know nothing about the universe, when I've spent all my life trying to figure it out," Louis mumbled. "It's maddening, I can't wrap my mind around it. It's too much."

"Baby," Harry said, and Louis felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders from that one word. Like he was bone-tired and Harry was allowing him to lean on him. "Don’t work yourself up into a breakdown, please."

He let out a sad snort, hanging his head. "What do we do, then? What do we do now?"

"I think I'm gonna take a look at the program.” Harry nodded to himself, glancing at the computers. “See if there are any errors."

Louis appreciated the sentiment, but he was sceptical. "And if there is, would you be able to fix it?"

The man returned a tiny, sheepish smile. "To be honest, I'll barely understand some parts. But it's better than sitting around, right?"

At this point, doing _anything_ was better than doing nothing. They couldn't just wait for a miracle while the chances of them going back kept decreasing with every passing second.

"Yeah. I'm gonna…" he ran his gaze around the station, "find something to do too."

Harry chuckled. "Okay."

While trying to make a list of things they needed to get done before going back, Louis finished his morning chores. His brain kept coming back to the GPS, even though he knew there was not much they could do about it. He tried to keep himself busy with uploading the data they had collected into the system, unnecessarily cleaning the station, and waiting for Harry to tell him he'd fixed it.

But he never did. It had been two hours and Louis could barely sit still. He was beginning to wonder about their families, where they all were, how old, what their lives were like now. Whether or not they'd get to meet them, if they got stuck here. What would their families, the ones in their time, do, if they never came back. Louis hated his thoughts right now.

He was passing by the front windows when he saw them.

"Harry."

“Yeah?”

“Come here for a second.”

"What is it, Lou? I'm kind of busy."

"Harry!"

"What?!" Harry exclaimed, turning around. He must’ve seen that Louis wasn’t messing around, so he stood up with a sigh and walked over. When he saw them, his eyes widened.

Strolling into the clearing were future Louis and Harry, holding hands and looking around.

"What are they doing here?" Louis took a step closer to Harry.

"It's almost like… they know we're here," Harry said slowly, raising his eyebrows at him like he was a child.

"Don't sass me, Styles." Louis swatted at his arm. "Do you think they're looking for us? Why would they be looking for us?"

"Only one way to find out." Harry started to move towards the door, and within a second Louis' hand was on his chest to stop him.

"What are you doing?" Louis hissed. "Are you going outside?"

Was Harry really ready to meet them? He was flipping out over it yesterday, but now he had no problem with it? 

"Isn’t that what you wanted? It’s why we went there last night."

Last night. God, what even was last night. He almost couldn't believe they made it out alive out of that mess.

An even more embarrassing aspect of the incident occurred to him just when he'd thought last night's events couldn't get any worse. "They'd know we saw them, right? Christ, obviously they do, _they are us!_ " 

"If it makes you feel any better, this also means that they've seen _their_ future selves going at it."

"Right, so it cancels out," Louis deadpanned.

Harry merely chuckled. How the fuck was he so calm? A total 180 from yesterday.

Louis didn't get to ask because right that second, Harry leaned in and pressed their lips together. And just like that, his mind was filled with static. Only Harry’s mouth and his palm covering his own on his chest had him rooted to reality.

"It'll be fine, yeah?" Harry said, pulling back.

"Yeah." Louis hummed out, eyes heavy. He blinked himself out the haze, wondering why he was so affected in the first place. "Hey listen, this isn't fair, okay? You can't keep kissing me and distracting me every time just because you can."

"Okay." Harry laughed, and did it again. Louis wanted to smack him and kiss him at the same time.

Instead, he took a deep breath, glancing at their future selves once before they both headed to the door.

It sensed their presence and slid open, revealing them to the outside world. Without the camouflage, the future men spotted them easily. Both the pairs began moving towards each other.

For some reason, his gaze stuck to future Harry. The first thing he registered, the thing that took him a moment to adjust to, was the beard. _A fucking beard._ He felt weird at first, too used to the pretty smooth skin of his Harry's cheeks, but then… he couldn't deny that future Harry pulled it off. His face had matured, obviously; a few lines were visible on his forehead and the beard also added to the effect. The curls had been chopped off, leaving a smaller mop of chocolaty waves atop his head, with a little bit of grey by his temples. He was wearing an embroidered green jacket over a white and brown striped t-shirt and a pair of flared brown pants and the facial hair and holy fucking shit. Louis' knees felt weak just looking at him. Would he be considered perverted if he was thinking about his beard against his skin?

Just then, like he'd read his thoughts, the fucker caught his eyes, and _smirked_. Louis looked away, swallowing.

He took in his own future self with a more critical eye. It was bizarre, because it was himself but a version he’d never seen before. His hair was swept down in a fringe instead of the quiff he wore now, softening the edges of his face and his whole look, really. There was grey dotting the caramel of his hair. The crinkles by his eyes were deeper and more prominent, and so were his smile lines. His glasses were missing. He sported a jumper and loose-fitting jeans, so his fashion sense hadn't changed much. His gait was noticeably more relaxed, and he had an air of calmness about him.

Louis didn’t miss the matching rings adorning their hands.

When they came to a stop a short distance away, the older men had nostalgic looks in their eyes. None of them spoke for a moment, and the silence made Louis edgy. What would be the least awkward way to greet them?

"I'm sorry about last night," He spat out.

Fringe Louis shook his head in second-hand embarrassment, while Beard Harry laughed. "'S alright. You'll be in the same position in ten years."

He almost asked if they had left the curtain open intentionally, but thought better of it. The moment was weird enough as it was.

“Very sorry we couldn’t answer the door yesterday. We were busy, as you now know,” The older him said, making his husband snicker. “So we thought we’d come and see what you guys wanted.”

They both looked at him expectantly, and Louis sputtered for a bit. He’d thought they’d know exactly what they needed right now. Were they gonna make him spell it out?

“We just want to know...” Louis had so many questions for them, questions that had been piling up since they came here. _What was their kid’s name? They didn’t shag in their car too, did they? Where were Vikram and Emily and the rest of them all? Did they have regular artificial rain everywhere? Who was Niall? Did they own one of those augmented reality devices?_ "What’s the world like?"

The men thought about the question for a moment. 

"Still turning." Older Louis said, with no intention of expanding on it. 

Okay, maybe he had to be more specific. He tried again. "Why are we here and not London? What do you even do here?"

"We do what we love," The bearded man answered vaguely. 

"I mostly do him." Future Louis pointed a thumb at his husband.

Both the Harry's let out a short bark of laughter. Louis was pleased to know that Harry would still laugh like that in the future, but he couldn’t dwell on that at the moment.

“Did something happen?” He asked next. “At the lab? Where is everyone?”

The mirth in his older self’s eyes dwindled. His partner answered. “Everyone is great. Yeah. They’re all good.” 

Louis frowned. They were deliberately not giving them any information, but why? "So, you won't tell us anything?"

"Can't.” Louis #2 corrected. “You are the only other people who would actually understand, but you are also the people who should not know." 

Older Harry nodded along sagely. "You'll do what you'll do and everything will be fine. Just... let it happen, yeah?"

 _This is ridiculous._ Louis was getting mad. He'd nearly lost Harry just to have a chance to talk to them, and this is what they have to say? Did they come all the way here just to dodge their questions? Why were they being so useless?

He was about to snap and tell them to go back to their little home if that’s all they had to offer. But Harry beat him. "Well, can you at least help us with the GPS?"

The future men exchanged a look. "We can try."

"What's that supposed to mean?" His words had a bite to them, and he didn't care. "Don't you know how to do it?"

"Sure we do. But we're not gonna do your dirty work for you, are we?"

Louis kind of hated himself at that time. He was so annoying, how did anyone bear with him at all?

He glared at the backs of the future men’s heads as they all walked to the station. When they entered, they looked around reverently for a while, as if they hadn’t seen it in a long time. It made Louis even more suspicious that something had, in fact, happened. He was gonna probe further, but before he could, the older him walked to the computers.

“Let’s do this, then, lads.” He muttered, pulling out a chair and settling in like he belonged there. Louis glanced at his Harry, before following the older one to the computers and crowding around the man there.

With just a few clicks, he had the screen displaying a 3D model of the station.

"Alright. This is the station. Let's ignore the living space and the water tank, they’re not relevant. The entire machinery is towards the bottom left. And somewhere over here is your GPS." He zoomed in, circled the area with the cursor, then pulled up a picture of it from the promptuary. "You're only connected to your time through this antenna. It's supposed to send and receive signals from the arc of QuSTiN through the quantum parameter. But it's not."

"Why?" Was it damaged during the jump? Was it because they weren’t where they were supposed to be? Did it have any connection to their new theory?

"We never found out," Louis #2 said, his voice bitter.

"Haven't, yet." His husband squeezed his shoulder, and they exchanged a look. Something had definitely happened.

"You could say that." Future Louis gave half a shrug. “Anyway. Since we don’t know what’s wrong with it, we’re left with only one option. Replace it.”

Older Harry reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a brand new antenna, exactly the same as in the photo. The one and a half inches long device was slightly conical in shape and black in colour, with a gold connector. Louis had called it a minuscule vibrator when he’d first seen it.

But the important thing was, the one in the photo was the only working piece they had created.

Harry’s brows pulled together. “Where did you get this?”

Beard Harry scratched his beard. “We got it from our future selves and um… kept it.”

“Kept it.” Harry deadpanned. “For what, ten years? And this is supposed to work?”

Wait. If Louis and Harry were getting it from them, and they got it from their future selves, that meant their future selves must’ve gotten it from _their_ future selves and _those_ guys must’ve gotten it from—

“How old is that thing?”

“Fuck knows how old.” Older Louis stared at the object like it was the bane of his existence. “But it hasn’t failed yet, given that there hasn’t been a cosmic level disruption in spacetime. We don’t have the time to analyse how or why or what. The only thing we can do is trust it to work, and if it does,” he gave Louis a meaningful look, “keep it. For them.”

For the Louis and Harry they’d meet ten years later in their time. Louis was drowning in questions. What the fuck was this thing? Where could it have come from? Did it even have an origin? The entire machine was technically the property of the lab, how were they just going to keep it?

He ran a hand down his face, trying to recenter his thoughts. Older him was right, they didn’t have time for those questions now, but they’ll have it when— _if_ —they made it back. First and foremost, they had to make it back.

"But how do we replace it?” He asked. “We don’t have the equipment to disassemble the station, and there’s no way we can go to the lab."

"You won’t need to.” Harry #2 spoke up. “One of you could shrink down, and enter the station from the charging port. The other one could guide them to the GPS, from here. Once you reach it, just replace it."

Shrinking down using the capsules. Going _inside_ the station. As batshit crazy as it sounded, it was a possible solution. It was more than they had minutes ago. The future men weren't that useless after all. "That could work."

"No, it wouldn’t!” Harry was quick to argue. “We only have two shrink capsules left, remember? We don't have any growth capsules."

"This is exactly why this idiot needs you, darling,” Older Louis told Harry. _Louis’_ Harry. “He’s reckless to a fault.”

Louis indignantly gaped at the three men, all of them sporting a different kind of smile. Maybe he had not thought it through entirely, too excited at just the prospect of a solution. But he didn’t need to be called out like this, specially by his own self. 

And that guy needed to back off, too. He had his own Harry who he could call ‘darling’.

“About that capsule case you lost," Fringe Louis nodded to his husband, who produced the lost capsule case from another pocket. "Our daughter claims you dropped it in the park. But who knows? She’s a little shit.”

Losing it had been weighing on Harry, and seeing it again made his shoulders slump. He took the proffered case. “Better her than anyone else.”

As it turned out, the future men were quite the opposite of useless. His idea of asking them for help hadn’t been wrong. They had brought the solution to every problem with them. The only hurdle now was pulling this plan off.

Louis straightened up, catching Harry’s gaze. “Okay, now it can definitely work.”

But Harry disagreed. "No, Louis, we still can't risk it. We haven't tested them on living beings!"

There were times when Harry’s forethought was appreciated, like moments before, and times when it was a deterrent, like now. Louis knew that what he was saying was technically correct. He wouldn’t have considered doing it himself, but coming from their future selves, it carried some credibility. They wouldn’t have suggested it if they knew it wasn’t gonna work, right?

“But Harry,” Louis stepped closer to him and grabbed both of his elbows. "Can’t we trust them, though?"

Harry opened his mouth, trying to come up with an argument, but he couldn’t find one. Louis saw it in his eyes, the exact moment he resigned to it. He looked at him, upset but helpless, and Louis squeezed his arms in reassurance. It was not an easy way, but it was the only way.

Turning to the other men, he nodded once firmly. "I'll do it."

Harry’s eyes were impossibly wide as he clutched his shoulders and turned him towards himself again. "Lou, no—"

Louis talked right over him. "We don't have much time, H. It's either you or me, and I'd very much rather it be me. I got us here, didn't I? Told you I'll get us back, didn't I?"

He was not breaking any more promises.

Harry was shaking his head wildly. "That doesn't mean you have to do this—"

"He's also shorter," Future Harry spoke up. "That would probably help."

Louis' gaze snapped to him, offended, but before he could respond, the other Louis had smacked his husband's arm with the back of his hand. His expression was similar to the one Louis had on his face, except there was a little too much fondness in his eyes.

"Sorry. Sorry, honey," Future Harry said, even though his chuckles were spilling out.

 _God, look at those fuckers._ He couldn't help but scrunch his nose at the obvious married-ness. But the thing that stood out to him the most was the fact that they were gonna make it. They were gonna be okay.

He cupped Harry's face in earnest. "Look at them, H. We're gonna be alright, see? I'm gonna fix this thing and we're gonna go back and we're gonna be fine. You have to trust me and let me do this."

The words gave Harry pause. All his protests slipped away with a warm exhale. "Okay. I trust you."

Louis swallowed, his heart fluttering against his ribs. Harry still trusted him. It was like the tension had been released from a stretched string. Harry trusted him, and Louis meant to keep it that way for the rest of their lives.

“Lovely.” Fringe Louis plucked the antenna from his husband’s hand, rotated in his chair and held it out for Louis. Just as he reached out to take it, the older man pulled it back. "I’m only gonna say this once. You'll have to be _very_ careful. This thing works on quantum energy. One misstep and you'll get a one-way ticket into the quantum world."

Of course, they'd been into the quantum world before, crossed it to reach the future. But that had been an intensively monitored jump from one point to another. Just falling into it without any means to pull him out again...

"What happens if I do?"

"We're all doomed. You die, I die. Your Harry doesn't make it back, my Harry doesn't exist. And without us, our kid..." It was unthinkable, for all four of them. "And just a million other problems."

A heavy silence followed. He knew he was gonna successfully do it, but he couldn’t take that for granted and be heedless. The stakes were frightfully high. It was suddenly so much bigger than just them going back. The lives that their future selves had built depended on him. Everything and everyone they had ever known would be affected. The balance of _spacetime_ depended on him.

Okay, maybe it was not that extreme. But it did feel like a superhero moment, and Louis liked those. 

Taking a step backwards, he spread out his arms. “Well, then. Shoot me.”

The others just stared at him, ruining the moment.

"Slow down, hero.” Louis #2 shook his head and got up. “You might want to put on your suit. That thing helped you survive a jump through time."

Louis dropped his arms, watching as the man went in to get his suit. He wasn’t sure that they were the same person anymore. He promised the Louis he’d meet in ten years that he wouldn’t be such a fucking buzzkill.

The suit was brought out, and he shamelessly stripped out of his clothes. _Nothing anyone in the room hasn’t seen before._

"Mellowed out, have we?" Louis couldn't help the biting sarcasm in his tone as his future self helped him gear up. 

He expected Louis #2 to reply with a snarky comment, because _that_ couldn't have changed, but he only smiled. "I've found it's not that bad a thing."

He gave two firm claps on his shoulders to indicate that he was done. The Harry’s brought him the antenna, a torch, and his gun and capsules. Harry and him put on their earpieces.

The timer struck 01:35:00, and he was ready. They moved to the middle of the room, where Harry was handed his own gun and capsule case. The future men moved aside. Harry's hands were trembling as he picked a red capsule and fed it into the gun. He aimed at Louis’ chest, but hesitated to pull the trigger. 

He knew Harry was still worried. Taking a small step forward, he nodded encouragingly. “Do it, babe.” 

“Louis.” His Adam’s apple was bobbing in his throat.

“It’s okay. Don’t think about it, just shoot.”

It was like he hadn’t heard Louis at all. "I can't believe I have a gun pointed on you."

"Harry, shoot, goddamnit!"

The man jumped in his skin a little. "Okay, okay!"

With a pained expression, he steadied his hands again, swallowed, wet his lips. Louis was about to urge him again when Harry squeezed the trigger.

The capsule hit Louis before he could comprehend it. He didn’t feel the impact, but did experience the instantaneous effect. It felt a bit like a balloon getting deflated; all the air was pushed out from his lungs, and all the space from between the atoms he was made of. It didn’t hurt, particularly, but would need some getting used to.

Disoriented, he fell to his hands and knees. So did Harry, but for different reasons.

"Lou!” He cried, his face nearly pressed to the floor as he tried to get on Louis’ level. “Are you okay? Please, don't be dead, oh please—"

"Harry, I'm right here, aren't I?" Older Louis tried to reassure the panicking boy, before turning to his husband. "Christ, I'd forgotten how much you'd panicked."

The husbands began bickering amongst themselves as Louis turned on his earpiece. "I'm alive, babe, I'm good."

Relief washed over Harry's face. "Oh, thank _god_ I didn't kill you!"

Once he’d caught his breath, Louis got up. The world seemed _gigantic_ to him. The dining chairs were taller than the mountains. He could see every individual thread of the carpet under his feet. And Harry… Jesus, had his nostrils always been this big?

Harry laughed giddily. "I know you've always been tiny, Lou, but wow."

Louis couldn't believe the audacity of this guy. Here he was, trying to save their asses, and Harry chose this moment to joke about his height. He lifted a hand up and flipped him off.

"Are you giving me the middle finger?" Harry wiggled a finger at him like one would do in front of a kitten. "I can't tell because you're too small."

He sighed, knowing he’d never hear the end of it, and glanced down at his tiny self. "How big am I?" _How small, more like._

"You're, like, a centimetre and half.” Harry pinched his fingers. “Could put you in my pocket."

Louis snapped his gaze up, sending Harry a fierce look. Even though he probably couldn’t make it out. "Don't you fucking dare, Styles."

Before he could respond, the future men stepped up to them.

"C'mon then, Harry.” Normal-sized Louis nodded towards him. “Give Ant-Man here a lift to the port."

He was about to quip, _Ant-Man can walk, thank you very much._ But walking all the way to the port would be a waste of precious time. “Are you gonna fucking carry me? This is not how I’d imagined it going.”

Harry laughed again, spreading his hand out in front of him. “Climb on, baby.”

What the actual fuck was even happening right now. He placed both his hands on the edge of Harry’s palm and pulled himself up onto it. The lines of his hand made deep grooves in the soft flesh. He walked to the center and sat down, wondering how it felt to Harry.

Harry carefully stood up, nodding to the older men once before starting to make his way out. Although he tried to keep his hand steady, it was still bouncing gently with his steps. Louis found it wasn’t unpleasant. Never in his life had he thought he’d be sitting on Harry’s palm like this and fucking enjoying it.

With Harry’s huge legs, it took them less than a minute to reach the back of the station, where the port was. The man knelt down, very carefully once again, and pressed the side of his hand to the station’s wall, in level with the opening. The station was supposed to be charged while it was shrunk down, but since it was currently full-sized, the port seemed as big as his garage door to Louis.

He walked over to it, and stepped onto the stainless steel without any difficulty. Standing near the edge, he turned to face Harry.

“This is where I should give you a kiss for luck.” The giant man was squatting down, biting his lip. Louis thought he was gonna say something sappy, was about to tell him he knew how he was feeling. But Harry continued, “but I don’t wanna accidentally swallow you.”

“...Harry Styles, fuck the fuck off.”

He grinned, but concern sat at the corners of his lips. “Seriously Lou, be careful, yeah?”

“I will. Now go.”

Harry nodded, and with one last glance towards him, jogged away.

Louis took a long look at the bright outside world, at the trees rustling with the wind and the warm sunlight falling upon them. Then he turned to the port. It was high and wide, but the light could not touch farther than a few feet. The end of the port was shrouded in pure darkness.

"Lou?" Harry’s voice came alive just as he had grabbed his torch and flicked it on. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes." He shone the torch directly at the far wall, and found a dead end. "How do I get inside?"

"There should be holes on all sides of the port, do you see them?"

On four sides, there was a pair of long slots. They must be where the plug of the charging cable clicked into place. “Yup.” 

“Slip in through one of those.” Louis walked to the right wall and, placing a hand on the edge, jumped to the other side. Inside was pitch black, except for a single streak of light that filtered in through the gap. “You should be on a board now.”

He focused the torchlight around his feet. He was standing on a green silicon board. The port was mounted on one end, while cylindrical capacitors as tall as him stood in a line in the middle of the board. Circuit lines ran on the surface of the board like veins of a leaf. “I am.”

“It’s the charging port board. Look around you, tell me what you see.”

Louis walked to the middle of the board, shining the torchlight in every direction. “There are wires on the opposite side, I assume they go to the power supply?”

“Yeah, but you don’t need to go there.”

“Okay. There’s a chip to my left, and, uh, a metal box of some sort to my right.” He looked above him. “There’s also a pipe? Of the water cooling system.”

“Can you climb on it?” Harry asked. “It’ll lead you straight inside.”

“Hold on.”

The pipe ran along the inside of the station wall, small clips pinning it in place. He searched the area for a way to reach that high up. The metal box was a little taller than him, but there were dents in its design that made it manageable to climb. Holding the torch in his mouth, Louis fit his hands and one of his feet in those dents and grunted with the effort of pulling himself up. 

Once he was on top of the box, he ran to the wall where the pipe was. It was made of thick, clear blue plastic. Louis could hear the soft sound of the water rushing through it, could see the occasional bubble. He used one of the clips to climb onto it. The pipe was wide and firm beneath his feet, comfortable to walk on.

He plucked the torch out of his mouth. “I’m on the pipe. Left or right?

“Right, go right.” Harry told him, and Louis began walking. “Keep telling me where you are.”

Louis squinted against the dark that was swallowing the light. There were more boxes below, black and huge, containing some component or the other. Bundles of wires ran between them. He relayed all that to Harry. “Although I can’t see very far. It’s so fucking dark, H. We should invest in some lighting for in here.”

The man chuckled softly. “We’ll suggest that to the team for future references.”

Once Louis became more sure-footed on the pipe, he fastened his pace, almost jogging. He kept the torch focused a couple of feet in front of him, making sure the pipe wasn’t turning or bending abruptly. It paid off, because only a few minutes later it twisted to the left.

“The pipe’s turned left,” He told Harry. “Do I keep following it or get off it?”

“Follow it for a few more inch— _feet_ , for you.” Harry corrected himself. Louis could bet he was smiling. “When you find a ribbon cable passing right under the pipe, jump on that.”

Soon enough, Louis spotted it. Multiple wires, running parallel to each other, with colourful insulations which made it look like a rainbow. He laughed as he slid down the curve of the pipe and landed on the cable.

“I’m walking on a fucking rainbow right now. What the fuck.”

“Some people call them ‘hippie cables’, did you know?” Harry said casually, like Louis was strolling through a garden and they were talking over the phone about a strange flower Louis had spotted.

“What the _fuck_. Why? Why do you know that?” Harry started to answer but Louis cut him off. “No, don’t. Not now. Tell me where this rainbow is taking me.”

“To some hard drives.”

It took him more than ten minutes to reach said drives, mostly because the rainbow ribbon wasn’t as stable as the pipe had been. It wobbled with his every step and never let him move faster than a trot. His heart was in his throat by the time he stepped off it, grateful for a firm floor under him again.

Harry asked him to go around the hard drive, where he’d find another motherboard. And Louis did, but—

“Shit. There’s a grid in my way, Harry.” It was metal again, and extended to as far as the torchlight went in either direction. “Is there a way around?”

“It’s to compartmentalise the machinery, Lou, half as wide as the station. Don’t bother trying to find a way around.” 

“Fuck my life.” Whose idea was it to design the station like an obstacle course? Louis was gonna find them and fire them. “Do I have to climb it too?”

“Well, you can’t possibly slip in through the holes, can you?”

The sarcasm in Harry’s voice ringed through loud and clear, but Louis ignored it. He _could_ slip through the holes, actually. It hadn’t occurred to him, why hadn’t it occurred to him? The holes in the grid weren’t that small. It was doable.

“You’re brilliant, babe.” Louis told him, already cooking up a plan. There wasn’t enough space to put in his legs one at a time. He would have to pass through in one go.

There was a pause before Harry caught up to what Louis was thinking. As soon as he did, he began yelling. 

“Louis, no!” Louis chuckled as he pushed in an arm and placed the torch on the ground on the other side. “That was supposed to be rhetorical, you idiot.” He straightened up, flexed his fingers and gripped the edge of the hole above the one he was planning to jump into. “Don’t do it!” He took a few steps back to gain momentum, heaved himself up. Keeping his feet together and aiming for the gap in the grid, he moved forward and swung through to the other side. “I swear to God, if you get stuck in there—”

“I’m through, I’m through!” He wheezed out. His landing might have been rough, his arms could’ve been stretched a little too much and his hips might’ve been scraped slightly, but he had made it past the grid.

“You’re fucking crazy, Tomlinson,” Harry scolded, but there was relief in his tone too. 

Louis couldn’t help his grin as he picked up the torch. “Stop shouting at me and tell me where to go.”

“Straight ahead. The GPS is on the opposite side.”

In front of him was a vast motherboard. The surface was covered by hundreds of chips, of various sizes and for a hundred different purposes. With their multiple pins soldered to the silicon, they gave him the impression of giant spiders. Micro LED bulbs glowed at random places. There were more capacitors, resistors and inductors than he had ever seen at once. Some parts filled the space with a continuous whirring sound, while others beeped occasionally. It was like being inside the heart of the station.

“Be careful not to touch any unshielded pads.” Harry warned him as he began jogging. “All of them are live, and have very high voltages.”

“Pads?”

“The, um, raised circular things on the board? Copper, or maybe gold?” 

He noticed them, then, the ones that didn’t have anything smouldered to them. “Right, okay.”

Keeping that in mind, Louis tried to move in a straight line as best he could. Various other devices that were mounted on the board made it tricky. His destination was so far it wasn’t even visible to him yet. 

A little over halfway there, just as he ran around a particularly tall device, a sudden current of wind sent him stumbling. Louis barely caught himself before headbutting a pad. A glance to the right told him that the source of the gust, the device he was crossing, was a cooling fan. He was too close to it, the current too strong to even keep his eyes open. The warm air made his hair fly wildly and his cheeks flap. He cursed as he rushed out of its range, nearly losing his sense of direction.

Harry helped him get back on track, and after a few more minutes, he had crossed the entire motherboard.

“Do you see the SSV slots?” He asked when Louis had reached. “Long, vertical rectangular things?”

There were lots of them, all standing side by side. “Yeah, I’m in front of them.”

“They should be labelled. Look at the board.”

He found the labels neatly printed near the side of the slots. “This one reads ‘Slot 36’.”

“Go left. Is the next one Slot 35?”

Louis checked. “Yeah.”

“Keep going left until you find Slot 18 and 19.” Hope and excitement were blooming in Harry’s voice. “Then walk between them to the other side. You’ll reach the GPS motherboard.”

He followed the instructions, walking briskly past the ports and checking each one for the labels. The slots varied in length and colour. Some had wires connected to them. It didn’t take him long to find the ones Harry had mentioned, and he didn’t waste a second passing between them.

The watch on his wrist glowed 00:46:27 when Louis finally stepped onto the GPS board.

“I’m here, Harry.” He breathed out, assessing his surroundings.

This board was a lot smaller, just about the size of the first one he’d crossed. A single, square chip sat in the middle, with a couple of capacitors on two sides. An LED flickered weakly in the right corner, washing the space in dim red light. But the thing he was here to fix, the antenna, was screwed into the connector on the left side.

“You’re doing so great, Lou.” Harry cheered him on as he rushed to it. “Just replace it now and come back.”

Only, there was one not-so-little problem. The antenna didn’t seem so miniscule now — it was twice as tall as he was, and much wider than what his arms could wrap around. How the fuck was he supposed to replace it?

“Yeah, that’s gonna be a bit difficult.” He put down the torch and tested his arm strength against the broken antenna. It didn’t budge at all. "Can't I just shrink it down?"

That would take about a pinch of power and a trickle of time.

"I wouldn't risk it, Louis.” Harry was definitely frowning. “What if you end up shrinking the station?"

"Fuck's sake," He grumbled. This right here was another reminder why he, for the most part, was a _theoretical_ physicist.

Buckling himself for some hard labour, Louis placed his hands on the antenna again. This time, he put his whole body into it. His feet pushed against the board and he grunted as he tried to twist it free with everything he had in him.

The first few threads were the toughest. But once he got it moving, it was easier. Static friction was always greater than kinetic friction, after all. He could hear his heartbeats in his ears as he huffed and puffed to unscrew the antenna the rest of the way. When there was only the last thread left, Louis pushed it over. The antenna toppled to the board with a clang.

“Okay.” He put his hands on his knees and panted. “The old antenna is out.”

“Are you all right, baby?”

Sweat beads were forming on his hairline and he could _feel_ his blood being pumped into his palms. He was sure he was red in the face. “Never been better.”

“That was stupid, sorry.” Harry chuckled softly. “Thirty-five minutes left. C’mon, then.”

Gulping, Louis straightened and pulled out his gun. He picked a capsule of the right colour, then loaded it. Shot it at the broken antenna, and it shrunk down enough to easily fit his palm. He put it in his left pocket and from the right one, took out the new antenna.

Having it grow to normal size would be extra complicated. The object in question was very small, the light was very low and the chances of missing the shot were very high. Besides, he’d have to be crafty with where he had it expanded. If he placed it down on the board, lifting it up to the connector would be impossible. He couldn’t put it directly on the connector either, because it wouldn’t get attached properly and could cause more damage.

Licking his lips, he placed it delicately on the edge of the connector. Hopefully when he shot the blue capsule at it, it would retain its balance. He would only have to push it into place and screw it in. If not… well.

Louis strained his eyes to aim, and pulled the trigger. 

The sparse light around him went out.

“Oh, fuck. _Fuck._ ” Harry cursed, and Louis’ heart dropped to his stomach.

“What happened?” Did he miss the shot? Was the station expanding? He blindly scrambled to find the torch he’d dropped. “Harry, what’s going on?”

“The station went into suspend mode, Lou. We’re nearly out of power.”

He froze. Cold dread filled his lungs, making it difficult to breath. They had tried so hard to make up for the electricity they’d lost trying to get the GPS to work, but it had not been enough. The consequences of Louis’ imprudence were catching up to them now. It’d all be his fault if the station shut down before he replaced the antenna, before they made it back—

No. He couldn’t afford to have a breakdown over the what-if’s right now.

“How much power do you think we’ve got?” His shaky hands located the torch. “How much time?”

“Twenty, maybe thirty minutes.” There was shuffling on Harry's side. “I’m turning off all the lights and appliances. But I don’t think it’s gonna buy us more than a couple of minutes.”

Anything they could get, anything at all, could make the difference. Louis’ palms, that had been burning up, were now going cold with nerves. He set the torch on the chip so that it shone right where he needed it to. Then quickly got to work on the antenna.

The universe wasn’t completely against them, because the antenna had grown exactly how he’d planned. It sat precariously on the thick, circular edge of the connector, half of its base still hanging out unsupported. The slightest miscalculation could’ve proved troublesome.

Louis began guiding it into the connector, every push careful. Right before it fell into place, he made sure the threads on the inside of the connector were aligned with those on the antenna. Wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his arm, and began screwing it in.

He didn’t notice it at first, too focused on the way his limbs were aching because _this is way harder than before, Jesus Christ._ It began as a tingle in his fingers when the antenna was a quarter of the way in, still too weak to draw his attention. But when it spread to his arms, his skin buzzing like thousands of bees had crawled in, he knew it wasn’t the exhaustion. Something was happening, something wrong.

“What’s…” He pulled away from the device, staring at his hands as the sensation slowly died down.

“Lou? What is it?” Harry asked, wary.

“Nothing, it’s just—” Louis shook his head, shook out the last of the tingles from his hands. Maybe it was a side effect of being micro-sized? Or the exhaustion? “It’s nothing. I’m gonna try again.”

Harry didn’t probe further as Louis got into position again. He’d only worked it in a tad further when the buzzing returned, more intense than before. This time, he actively ignored it. He needed to get this thing fixed as soon as possible and get the fuck out of here. The darkness was suffocating, seemed to be creeping closer and closer. So, he pressed his cheek against the warming antenna and pushed harder.

But that turned the tingles in his body to violent trembles, resonating in his skull nauseatingly. He gasped, stepping away once more. 

“Louis, what is happening?” Harry’s tone was sharp and worried.

“The antenna, it’s… it’s working.”

“But?”

“Not but, H.” Louis corrected, breathlessly staring at the device in part awe, part horror. “It’s working, and it’s sucking me into the quantum world.”

There was a harsh intake of breath. “Fuck, Lou, no! You can’t— but you’ve connected it, haven’t you?”

Louis shook his head, even though there was no one around to see it. “Only halfway. It won’t be enough.”

“You cannot—”

“I cannot _not_ do it.” Louis cut him off, determinedly edging closer to the antenna. He could feel the buzzing start again, from a distance now. But he had to fix it, and completely, or else that would be as good as broken. 

“Wait! I could turn off the power— shit, why didn’t I think of this before?” Harry’s voice was distorting with every step that he took. “Louis, stay where you are. I’m gonna—”

“No, Harry, stop. We do not have any power to spare now.” He pressed his palms to the antenna again, the tremors reaching his bones. “I’m gonna fix this.”

Harry’s voice faded into static as Louis grit his teeth and pushed. The radiations kept getting stronger the more he did. He was losing feeling in his fingertips, his hands. But he couldn’t stop, not when he was this close. 

He was aware that it could mean falling into the quantum world. That the spacetime would become imbalanced, millions of lives would be ruined. But that’d only be half as bad as it would be if he didn’t fix it. Because at least Harry would make it back. And that was the most important thing to him. He wouldn’t quit until he fixed it for him.

Louis knew his future self would’ve— _must’ve_ —done the same. The only difference was that he survived and Louis most definitely wouldn’t. He’d be letting the older men down. Every future version of him had done this; he’d be failing all of them.

But no one could say he hadn’t tried. _I_ _’ll do and die._

The only thing he wouldn’t have done would be Harry himself. Regrets.

By the time the antenna was three-quarters of the way in, he felt like the atoms in his body were being plucked out one by one. His vision alternated between the gloomy red of his surroundings and the black void of death he was being pulled into. His ears were ringing. Bright spots flashed past faster than bullets, leaving streaks of white burning behind Louis’ eyes in their wake.

What he had felt when they arrived in the future seemed like a joke now. The pain was severe, drawn out unlike their jump. Every fibre of his being was being stretched. It burned, it stung, it _hurt_.

His body threatened to disintegrate, every particle vibrating with unbounded energy and ready to fly away with the radiations. But he knew that it was there and that he still controlled it. He clenched his eyes shut and let out a long groan, mind reduced to a chant of push, push, push. He would spend himself until there was nothing left.

"Louis!" Louis _Louis LOUIS!_

It echoed in his mind, a scared shout, a trembling whisper, a high-pitched scream. A thousand voices saying his name again and again and again. But something told him it was just Harry. Harry, calling to him from a different dimension.

“Move! Get away!”

 _No!_ Louis wasn’t sure whether or not he said it aloud. He couldn’t move, not before fixing the GPS. Couldn’t Harry see? And it was almost done, too. He was spent. 

Everything was black, peaceful. 

If he let himself fall, he wouldn’t hit the ground. There wouldn’t be a ground to hit.

“Louis! Trust me, please.” Harry pleaded. “Move, _now!_ ”

His voice was clearer, a part of Louis noted, thick as if he was having difficulty speaking.

He would float, probably. Watch electrons whiz past him, too fast to catch.

His words registered a second later. Trust. Harry had trusted him, always. No matter what Louis had suggested. It was Louis’ turn. He needed to listen to him.

“Please. Louis.” His voice broke around his name. “Come back to me.”

It was then, when he began coming to, that he realised how dazed and delirious the proximity with the antenna had driven him. How dangerously he was teetering on the line between their world and the quantum one. How Harry’s words were wrapping around his arms and his legs and his torso, and pulling him to their side, to safety.

Louis’ eyes flew open. The soft white light of the torch shone directly at him. More than physical strength, it took him every last ounce of will power to gather himself and wrench away from the antenna.

His legs were jelly, the rest of his body frozen stone. He collapsed on the board, deadly out of breath. Aftershocks rocked through him. The LED blinked back to life.

“Lou, are you okay?” Harry was asking him, sounding a nervous wreck. “Are you with me? Talk to me, damn it! Louis?!”

“I’m—” His throat was so parched it prickled, and he had to swallow before he could speak. “I’m fine, Harry. I’m h-here.”

"Louis, oh my fucking god! You bloody bastard!" Harry cried. Literally. “It’s working, the GPS is working!”

"It is?" Louis panted out. “What— what did you do, H?”

"I don’t know, I was just— I was reading the promptuary to see if I could buy us more time somehow, but instead I found a way to turn off the power in a specific device?” Harry babbled, unnaturally fast. “I have no idea, I think when I shut off the GPS you were able to pull away. Then I restarted it and- and now it's perfect!"

“And now it’s perfect.” Louis repeated, letting it sink in.

They laughed in relief together, before Harry's voice turned urgent again. "Louis, we have less than thirteen minutes. You have to come out. _Run._ "

Louis pushed himself to his feet and just… ran. Instead of the throbbing in his legs, or the seconds ticking away on his watch, he focused on the sound of Harry's voice in his ear, giving him directions and words of encouragement.

His heart was hammering, his lungs were burning and he could barely get in a proper breath. But he kept running, along the wires, past the capacitors and across the ribbon cable. Things were starting to blur into each other.

He almost cried in relief when Harry gave him the last instruction. "Straight out, Louis! You're so close! You'll see the light from the port. Just go straight for a couple more feet and I'll meet you there, okay? I'm coming outside now."

Couple more feet, Harry had said. Louis still had more than fifty metres to run. He was sure he was gonna pass out before he ever saw the light, he was _so fucking tired_.

Tears were starting to form in his eyes. He almost slipped on the pipe, losing his momentum. The silence from Harry's end sounded like the void of death. It was only because of pure adrenaline that he could keep going.

At long, long last, he saw it. The light from outside was a pinprick at first, but the more he ran, the bigger it grew, until he could make out Harry moving on the other side. A sob burst from his lips. He crossed the remaining distance on numb legs, screaming like a mad man, screaming his poor heart out.

Harry already had his hand in place. This time, Louis didn't hesitate at all before jumping on there. He laid down on the clammy skin of Harry's palm, gasping in as much air as he could. Harry held him close to his chest as he rushed back into the station. 

Once they were inside, Harry lowered his hand to the ground and Louis clambered off on his hands and knees. It took the very last bit of strength he had to stand on his two feet as Harry fetched and loaded the gun.

A sudden fear gripped him as he looked up at the giant human pointing a giant gun at him. He hadn't felt this scared before. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that currently he was only a few millimetres bigger than the capsule itself. They couldn't risk Harry missing the shot.

At least Harry's hands were stable this time. He didn't spend longer than necessary to aim, and fired the gun. Louis told himself it wasn't a missile that was coming at him and forced himself to stay still.

But, just like before, he barely felt the impact. The growth experience was opposite of the shrinking one. It was a lungful of breath, almost choking in its suddenness. It was dizzying, the parameters of everything around him returning to normal.

Harry tossed the gun on the chair and rushed forward to wrap his trembling body up in his arms. His knees nearly gave out as Harry pressed a kiss to Louis’ forehead, and another bruising one to his lips, before burying his face in Louis’ neck. "You did it! God, I— you did it!"

Louis made an ugly half-sob-half-chuckle sound, holding on to Harry just as tightly. " _We_ did it, love. Could’ve died there without you."

"Stop saying shit like that!" Harry pulled away to look at him in indignation, and Louis pecked his cheek with a soft laugh. Harry hadn't let him die, after all.

It was then that he noticed it was just the two of them. "Where are they? Did they leave?"

"They said they’ll be waiting outside."

"Oh." There were still many questions in his mind, but not enough time. Just over two minutes. "All right, go put on your suit, H. I’ll set the location."

Harry nodded with wide eyes, running into the bedroom.

Tremors still shook his body as he sat down in front of the system. Harry had the interface pulled up already, and Louis fed in the desired space and time coordinates as quickly as his quivering fingers let him. The machine accepted his request, and he melted into the seat with relief.

Just as Harry came out, half of his body still hanging out of the suit, the two minute warning rang out. Louis rushed to help him, easing the sleeves over his arms and zipping up the back. Then he grabbed the gun and the capsule case, while Harry found the case for the station.

They hurried out of the station, and Louis saw the future men standing a few metres away, watching them. He turned away, focusing on loading the capsule into the gun. The automatic door had just shut behind them when he fired at the structure. Harry ran to get it, with Louis on his heels.

At exactly fifty five seconds to go, they put the station back inside the case, and Louis nearly slumped to the ground. Harry was smiling when he locked it.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He tilted his head, trying to regulate his breathing.

"We’re going back. And, not the best timing, but I realised that back there, we wouldn't have gotten together, technically speaking." Harry rambled, before his gaze snapped up to Louis with sudden doubt in his eyes. "We are together, aren't we?"

The words took Louis by surprise. There was nothing he wanted more, but he hadn’t been sure about Harry. He’d been ready to give Harry as much time as he needed, but if that's what they both wanted, he would be stupid to go another second not being with Harry.

"Of course, we are." He smirked, leaning in. "How's this, we go back, I ask you out all proper like, and we consummate our relationship."

"Deal." Harry laughed, and leaned in the rest of the way to let their lips meet.

A shadow loomed over them suddenly, and Louis heard his own voice say, "I kind of miss your long hair. Grow them out again?"

Pulling apart, Louis found their future selves standing near them. Beard Harry was touching his hair thoughtfully, while his husband wore a nostalgic, fond smile. Exchanging a glance with his own Harry, Louis got up.

The older him turned his gaze to them. "Great job, you two." 

"Thanks a lot for your help."

Future Louis hugged him, and he thanked some undiscovered law of universe that neither of them exploded. When they pulled back, there was a pensive look on the older man's face. He licked his lips, and just when Louis thought he might tell him something substantial, his watch started beeping around his wrist.

They both glanced down at it. The seconds counter showed a ten. When Louis looked back up to his future self’s face, the look was gone. It was the last bloody chance. "Tell me. Please."

But he shook his head, setting his jaw determinately. "You'll be okay. Even if it feels otherwise at times. Both of you will be fine."

Harry was calling him. He had half a mind to ask for something more, even as the beeping grew more insistent. Five seconds left. It was too late. There was not much he could do then except nod, and step away. 

He accepted Harry’s proffered hand and let him lace their fingers together. As last seconds elapsed, they stood facing the future men, who had their arms around each other. Louis thought he saw himself wave, but he couldn’t be sure because everything faded into white again.

_…pulled him close and wrapped his arms around him. Harry returned the embrace without delay, and Louis sighed._

_"It was weird, wasn't it?" He mumbled a few seconds later. "Meeting them? I'd thought it wouldn't feel as weird, since we've met our future selves before."_

_"Yeah, it definitely was weird." Harry chuckled. "Like reliving a memory, in a literal sense."_

_"The conversation was exactly the same, word for word. I'd call it creepy if I didn't know better." Louis mused on. "And can you believe how dumb we were?"_

_Harry just chuckled again, unable to come up with a better response. His mind was elsewhere. The whole encounter had obviously been odd, but in more ways for him than it apparently was for Louis. He felt stupid for feeling this way but he couldn't help it._

_It didn't take Louis long to catch up with his awkwardness. He pulled back to have a look at his face. "Harry? What's wrong?"_

_Harry glanced up at the sky and swallowed a big mouthful of air. "Let's, um, let's sit down, first?"_

_The weather was great today. It wasn't too cold yet, just enough to let them enjoy the warmth of the sun beating down on them from the clear blue sky. The clearing was very peaceful too, albeit the events that had taken place here minutes ago. Harry wanted to take a moment to take everything in and stop being so overwhelmed._

_When they were settled against the trunk of a tree, with barely any space between them and Louis' hand in his, Harry broke the silence. "I'm scared."_

_He knew Louis was giving him his intense look and his full attention without even looking at him. "Why, love?" He asked Harry softly, always careful when people bared their hearts to him. Harry figured it was because Louis knew how special those moments were, since he only did it so often himself._

_Harry sighed, looking down at their entwined fingers. Louis squeezed his hand in encouragement, and he started rambling. "I've always been scared. Of the future, of what might happen. Like, whether I'll get into the college I wanted, whether I'll graduate, get the job I liked; things like that because there were always so many possibilities, you know? Everything worked out perfectly for me, though, and I'm thankful for that. I got all of that, and also a best friend."_

_A small smile had grown on Harry's face, that he found mirrored on Louis' when he caught his gaze. "You know when I stopped being scared?"_

_Louis merely hummed, letting him continue. He was well versed in Harry and what he needed from years of experience. And right now, Harry needed to let it all out in one go._

_"Ten years ago," Harry told him. "When we cheated the universe and saw our destiny. Since then, I knew nothing could stop us from getting here. This day, it was like a checkpoint for me. Now it's here and… I have no idea what would happen next. I'm scared again, like I used to be a decade ago."_

_The words hung in the air. Louis was silent as he mulled it over in his head, his eyes getting a little far away look. Harry waited for his response with his lip caught between his teeth. He didn't want to sound like an absolute idiot, but this was just something that bugged him time and time again. He wanted Louis to tell him that his fears were irrational and everything would be alright._

_Louis licked his lips before he started speaking. "H, babe, at this point, I only know as much about the future as you. But I also know that whatever happens, it's not breaking us—"_

_"No! No, Lou, that's not what I meant at all." Harry shakes his head vigorously. He hadn't meant for it to sound like he was doubting_ them _, because he would—could—never do that. Louis and him were the most important constant in his life; it was almost absurd that he would ever question it. "It's not— I was talking about life in general, you know? Before our time travel, I used to think about these crazy scenarios, like, what if I ended up on the streets somehow? What if I had a car crash the next day, what if the planet died? Stupid stuff like that. But since then, since I knew we would be here, it kind of became something to hold on to. Like, no matter what happened, I knew we'd be here. It has helped me get through so many tough times, like a beacon of hope, you know? And now I've lost it. That uncertainty is back and I'm scared of the future again."_

_Louis' lips had quirked up into a smile, eyes fond and slightly amused, but he was still serious for the most part. "Christ, Harold. You think too much, you know that?"_

_Harry shrugged, waiting for the rest of Louis' response._

_"Well, I guess we just hold on to each other, now." Louis brought his other hand up too, so that Harry's hand was cocooned in both of Louis'. "We could end up on the streets or the planet could die, but I'll always be beside you, okay? It's you and me against whatever comes our way."_

_His heart clenched in his chest. The words didn't make the future any less scary, but it made him a little more brave. And that's what Louis had always done for him. Every last inch of him was overcome with love for his husband, and he was sure it was showing all over his face. They were a team, Louis, him and— "And Maddie."_

_"And Maddie. Of course. And the three other kids we're going to adopt." Louis amended with a serious nod, before breaking into a wide smile._

_With a happy giggle, Harry cupped Louis' cheek and drew him in for a long kiss. They kept it soft and sweet, sighing 'love you's into each other's mouths._

_They pulled away with wet lips and full hearts. Harry freed his hand from Louis' hold to wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him into a cuddle. He felt a kiss being pressed under his jaw before Louis curled his body around Harry's. His world was at peace._

_A moment later, Louis chuckled softly into his neck._

_He tilted his head to peek at Louis' face. "What's funny?"_

_The smaller man shifted a little and grinned up at Harry. "Isn't it weird that technically we only got together today, but we've been together for ten years?"_

_A lot of things had been, and still were, weird in their lives. The more they thought about it, the more unusual facets popped up. Harry had almost gotten used to it. "We're the weirdest couple ever, honey."_

_"Pretty reflective of us, I think."_

_That was true. He was pretty sure there was no other story like theirs, and never would be. As Louis settled back against him, Harry couldn't help but think,_ I wouldn't have it any other way _..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my little hero did it :') but will they make it back?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the aftershocks

This time either, Louis wasn’t prepared. The jump hit him just as hard as it had before. And the fact that they had landed on metal instead of the soft grass like last time made it worse.

He groaned as his body readapted. The light behind his eyelids was too bright for him to open his eyes. He heard multiple loud voices, but couldn't make out the words over the ringing in his ears.

The pain took a lifetime to fade. But when it had, he felt a bigger hand squeeze his own. He turned his head and opened his eyes to Harry grinning weakly at him, before he raised their clasped hands in victory.

The testing room erupted in cheers.

Laughing—because they’d done it, they’d made it back—Louis took in the scene around him. Up in the balcony, the directors were shaking each other’s hands. The members of the team were celebrating all around them, and if he wasn’t hallucinating, it was Emily in Vikram’s arms. He turned his gaze to beam at Harry, who was pushing himself up on his elbows.

Harry grimaced instead of smiling, and Louis’ grin widened. "Please don’t puke on me."

Since they felt weak, they were wheeled to another room to strip them of their suits and prepare for the medical examination. As they passed, their colleagues tried to reach out and congratulate them. He smiled and accepted the wishes, but along with that, there were also questions being thrown at them. Questions he didn’t have proper answers to. _How was future London?_ He didn’t get to go there. _Who did you meet?_ His daughter, then himself. _What did you see?_ Saw Harry fucking the life out of him.

It dragged him down from his victory high. All these people had tied their expectations with him; what had he brought back for them? Definitely not the wonders he’d claimed. He hadn’t been able to accomplish their original purpose and that, in other words, meant he had failed. Had let the entire team down.

He couldn’t help but brood, then, would the same events have happened had he gone with someone else? Or if they’d stayed, and some other people had gone in their place? Would they be taken to their own future, or London? Would they find better things than Louis and Harry did, or would knowing the future be just as disastrous for everyone? Or was it all already destined, unchangeable?

They had returned with more questions than they had left with.

"He was about to tell me, you know." Louis said as soon as the assistants left with their suits, leaving them to change into normal clothes.

"Hmm?"

"The future me. He was contemplating it, I could tell. But he stopped himself. Spewed out some philosophy instead." They had been so close, and yet.

Harry paused to think about it. "Must have done that for a reason. You said it yourself that we could trust them, right?"

"Yeah, but," he pulled his shirt over his head. "Why is 'some things are better left unknown' the ultimate lesson of everything? Are we, as a species, so incapable of handling knowledge?"

"Don't you think you're overreacting?"

"Let's pretend I'm not."

Harry shook his head fondly, but indulged him nonetheless. "Well, maybe we're not ready yet. Give it time, Louis."

 _We don't have time!_ He was about to argue, but stopped himself. He was a grown man, and above throwing a tantrum. Sometimes. 

Instead, he sat down with a huff. "I just wish they'd given us a hint at least. About why we landed there. It could be that theory of ours or something else entirely. And that magical wand of an antenna, what the hell is that?"

They didn't know shit. They didn't know whether or not it was a coincidence that they had ended up at Little Sunmoore. They didn't know if a person traveling through time would always land where their counterparts were. They didn't know what was connecting them together. They didn't know shit and it was killing Louis.

Harry sat down beside him with a sigh. "Conducting an experiment once is not enough to reach conclusions, we both know that. And more trials..."

The risk was far too great. They both knew that too.

"So all this was in vain?” The mere idea was chilling. “All the hard work, all the resources, all these years of my life… for nothing?" 

Harry gave him an exaggeratedly offended look, and Louis realised how wrong his words sounded. He quickly stammered out an explanation. 

"Not that— I mean, I'm really fucking glad that we're together now, Harry, you know I am.” He stood up, began pacing around. “But besides that, what have we achieved? From a researcher's point of view. We've made no solid progress."

"We made time travel possible, Louis!” Pushing himself to his own feet, Harry gesticulated with his hands as he spoke. “I say we achieved plenty. We're literally standing at the forefront of a new age for humanity. And obviously there’s a huge room for improvement. You didn’t expect it to work out perfectly in the first trial, did you?"

"Wha— no! But, yeah, that- that would have been _something_." Louis sputtered out, before hanging his head. "I just feel like I haven't done enough. Like a failure."

"Lou, baby. Look at me." Harry came up to him and cupped his face in both of his hands. When Louis lifted his gaze, he was washed over with bright green. " _Y_ _ou're not a failure_. We're going down in history, you know? Irrespective of whether or not we do this again. We’ll work on the machine and the antenna, and the directorate just might decide to continue the experiment, and we'll see something amazing come out of it like you wanted."

"Then why did everyone drop off the face of the earth?” His voice came out broken. “Why did we fuck off to a tiny little town nobody knows of, like we'd given up?" 

Harry faltered at that. "I don't know, Lou. I don't know what's gonna happen that will make us take that decision. But I'm not assuming anything. And I'm not letting you do that either, okay?"

Maybe he could give the universe the benefit of doubt. Louis nodded, but a little bitterness still creeped into his tone. "Just let it happen and all that, right?"

Harry gave him a sad smile and half a shrug.

"So what do we do now? What do we tell them?" He gestured to the other side of the door, where the team was buzzing with excitement.

His thumb caressed Louis’ cheekbone as he thought about it. "Take some time for ourselves. Figure things out with a clear head. I'm sure they'll understand."

Of course they would, all of them were too nice. And there was nothing better they could do.

"Okay."

They fell silent after that, but made no move to leave. Louis let Harry gaze at him to his heart’s content, body tingling under the scrutiny. Then he leaned down, and using his grip on Louis, he pulled him in too. He placed his hands on Harry’s hips, his eyes falling shut as their lips slid together. In that moment, nothing else existed, nothing else mattered.

"Oh my— oh my god?!"

Vikram stood in the doorway. He had spun around halfway to give them privacy before he realised what he'd seen. In a flash, he was turning back towards them, mouth wide open in shock.

"Hi Vicky. You can pick your jaw off the floor now." He informed him, as Harry pressed his forehead against the side of Louis' head, grinning.

"Honestly, I don't even know why I'm surprised." Vikram shook his head, laughing a little. "Probably because just an hour ago you were hell bent on being bro pals." 

It dawned on Louis that a very eventful two days had passed for him and Harry, but it had only been three minutes for everyone else. They both were two days older than they'd been an hour ago. He didn't blame Vikram, then.

"Well, congrats, guys. I'm really happy for you both, but the medic team is waiting, so if you could hurry up…"

They separated with a sigh from Louis. Harry made to follow Vikram out, but Louis grabbed his elbow to stop him.

"We're going back to mine after this," He whispered into his ear lowly, kissing under his jaw. Then he walked away without a glance back at him.

He smirked to himself when he heard Harry clearing his throat before his footsteps started following behind. 

"Louis."

"Yeah."

"Tell us."

"Tell you what?"

"Everything." Vikram waved his hands around like it was obvious. It was, but Louis was trying to stall. "What happened?"

He let out a deep sigh, catching Harry’s eyes. They were laying on soft beds across from each other in the med-wing, and almost the entire team was gathered in the room. Everyone was excited to hear firsthand about their quest, but they weren’t ready to share. If things had gone the way Louis had wanted, he’d have been telling them the story with excruciating details. But as it was, they couldn’t exactly say, _we didn’t find a lot, just realised we have had mutual crushes for years._

"God, where do I even start." Louis didn’t meet Vikram’s gaze, choosing to watch as a cuff was wrapped around his arm to measure his blood pressure.

"Well, from the beginning," Emily deadpanned from Harry’s side. "Where did you land? London?"

"Uh, no. Not London," Harry said. Emily raised an eyebrow at him for more, but Harry threw the ball back into Louis' court.

"We didn’t know where we were." Louis offered.

"At first," Harry added.

"Didn’t know where you were?" Vikram was frowning. "What about the GPS?"

 _What not about the bloody GPS_. "Yeah, the G—"

An assistant interrupted him. "Sir, your blood pressure is unusually high."

"That’s, uh…" How would he explain that it was because he’d been running around _inside_ the station and nearly falling into the quantum world? "That’s not due to the jump. Don’t worry."

Before anyone could ask Louis more about it, Harry continued the story. "We were in a forest."

"We were in a forest." He nodded. "Harry puked. And that was due to the jump."

Harry rolled his eyes, his cheeks pinking as the medics began fussing over him more. 

Vikram sat back in his chair. "Do you guys not wanna tell us?"

There was no easy way to do this. They’d be interrogated until they either spilled, or outright refused to answer. Louis had to choose the latter.

"Look, Vicky. Guys. I know you all wanna know but... a lot of weird shit happened, okay, a _lot_ ." He looked at Vikram as he said that, hoping he’d understand that most of the shit in question was _personal_. "And it’s all very fresh. If you could give us a little time, a couple days to process things—"

"—we’d really appreciate it." Harry completed for him.

Silence fell in the room. People glanced at each other, some worried, some disappointed. Louis didn’t blame them. These people had put their everything into the project, and when the time came for the pay-off, all Louis could give them was a cryptic answer. Had he been in their place, he would’ve been livid.

"Of course," Emily told him, taking charge and leading everyone out so they could have some time to themselves. Vikram stayed back, and Louis didn’t miss the look she exchanged with him before exiting the room.

"At least that went well." He smirked at Vikram.

The man laughed, and launched into the story of three very rough minutes of Emily’s life.

When he pulled into his driveway again, Louis thanked the universe for listening to his prayers. He was back.

Harry parked right behind him. They took out the clothes and other belongings they had taken with them to the future, and headed inside as the sun disappeared under the horizon.

Louis had never been more relieved to be home. It hadn’t even been an entire day, but to him, it felt like he had been away for months.

They carried their stuff to Louis’ bedroom, putting it away to be dealt with later. Then decided to take turns showering. Harry let him go in first, and he thanked him with a kiss. Inside, he set the temperature to scalding hot, and let the water melt away all the tension from his body.

Ten minutes later, Louis stepped out with only a towel around his hips. Harry was sitting on the bed, talking on the phone. He looked up at the sound of the door, and raked his eyes over Louis' form. Louis turned away with flushing cheeks.

"Hmm, I will," He said into the phone as Louis pulled some boxers, sweats and a worn out t-shirt from his wardrobe. "Tomorrow, yeah. Okay. Love you too, mum."

Within seconds, long arms wrapped around his waist from behind, and a head full of curls was buried into his neck.

"All right?" Louis asked softly, one hand falling to hold Harry’s arm as he leaned into him. His heart thudded as Harry’s thumb caressed the skin of his hip.

"Yeah," Harry murmured. "Got to talk to mum again. She was so worried, you know. We both were."

Worried about what, he didn’t have to spell out. That they wouldn’t get to talk again. Louis had felt the same, and even though she hadn’t let it show, he knew his mum was on the same page.

It reminded him that his family must be waiting to hear from him. "I should probably call home too."

"You do that," Harry pecked his bare shoulder, untangling himself. "While I take a quick shower."

He ignored the goosebumps rising on his skin from Harry’s kiss. "You want me to get started on dinner?"

Harry turned around at the bathroom door, leaning on the frame. "Why don't we just order in? I'm too tired to cook."

Louis nodded. "The usual?"

"Sure." Harry gave him a shrug and a smile before closing the door.

After placing their orders—sushi rolls for Harry and noodles for himself—at their favourite restaurant, he dialed his mum’s number. Like he had guessed, they were all awaiting his call. He felt the relief that he saw on his mum’s face when she picked up. She chided him for taking so long, before the girls snatched the phone from her and started firing questions at him. Once again, he had to dodge and lie, but there was no other way. He didn’t even know how much the board would allow them to share.

His mum demanded the phone back, and the girls obliged, grumbling. It was harder to stop himself from spilling all the beans in front of her, especially the thing with Harry. She’d known how he felt about him for years, and he knew she’d want to know any developments. But they hadn’t made it officially official yet, and he wanted to wait until that. If he got more shit for it later, so be it.

They talked until Jay was completely satisfied that her son, and Harry too, was safe and sound. She only hung up after he had promised to visit them soon. He was so glad he was able to do that.

With a sigh, he put his phone away. Now that that was done, he had the rest of the night alone with Harry. The shower was still running, and he figured he’d prepare something for them. From the bar cabinet in the living room, he picked his best wine. From the top shelf in the kitchen, he took out the fancy glasses, leaning up on his tip-toes.

"Lou." Harry's voice sing-songed as his footsteps entered the kitchen. "Look what I found."

He turned to find a freshly showered Harry, wearing bright yellow track pants and a Rolling Stones tee, and holding up a familiar bundle of papers with a smile on his face.

"The newspaper!" He grinned back, putting the glasses down and grabbing the bottle. "I thought they would've taken it."

"Nope. It was in my backpack. We might have to turn it in, though."

"Not necessarily." Louis filled the glasses halfway. "It's useless, and they don't even know it exists. We could keep it as a souvenir."

"Dunno, maybe." Harry tapped the newspaper on the table. "Wanna have a look?"

A part of him was wary. The trip had completely turned his world upside down, and that paper might have more information that they weren't supposed to know. So the answer was pretty obvious.

"Of course." He was a very curious man, all right.

Louis passed one glass to Harry as they settled in the dining chairs and Harry spread the paper on the table in front of them. Last time, he hadn’t paid any mind to anything other than the date. This time, he criticised the name—‘ _The Sunmoore Journal_ ’—for being unoriginal as hell. Actually studied what was printed, making comments here and there.

There really wasn’t much of interest, just as the guy from the shop had complained. Gavin’s hydrangeas and dahlias were blooming. An article talked about the area’s weather, and a couple about local events that were being organised.

His mind dissociated from what he was reading. Right now, he had no idea who these people mentioned in the paper were. But in ten years, he'd know them all; they'd be his friends and neighbours. They would get their eggs from Martha Lee and try out that new bakery and he would buy flowers for Harry from Gavin.

He was snapped out of his reverie when Harry turned the page and gasped. Blinking to bring the newspaper back into focus, he followed Harry's gaze to the bottom left corner.

Under the headline "Little Sunmoore Primary School conducts QuizWiz competition", there was a pixelated, black and white picture. Three families beamed at the camera, the kids standing on a winners podium with their parents on either side of them. Louis didn't spare a second glance to the other families, because right in the center were him, Harry and their daughter.

Both of them had their legs bent awkwardly so the little girl could put her tiny arms around their necks. Her gold medal was bitten between her teeth. Louis was holding her by the waist, and Harry had his arm around the both of them, his hand resting on Louis’ shoulder. There were dimples in her and Harry’s cheeks, and crinkles by her and Louis’ eyes. It was the loveliest picture he'd ever seen.

"We're not turning this in," Harry said decisively, fingertips brushing over their girl's face. Louis wholeheartedly agreed.

He lifted his eyes up to Harry's face, drinking in the softness and adoration of his expression as he continued to study the photograph. When he’d promised to ask Harry out properly, he had wining and dining him in mind. But looking at him now, he knew no date could beat this moment. There would be no better chance.

"So, Harry Edward Styles." Louis placed his hand over the picture, palm up. Harry's gaze found his and Louis refused to let his voice shake. "My dearest best friend, my lovely partner in crime, my most favourite person in the world. Will you do me the honour of being my boyfriend?"

Something lit up inside Harry, and his smile was the most brilliant thing Louis had ever witnessed. He let out a giddy laugh and placed his hand in Louis', weaving his fingers between his. "Yes, Louis William Tomlinson. Yes, I will."

Something settled inside Louis, like the final piece of a puzzle falling into place. These were the words he'd feared he would never get to hear from Harry. And to actually do so, was a piece of heaven.

Harry's free hand cupped his face, palm fitting against his jaw, and pulled him in. Louis tilted his head into Harry's hand to let their lips meet in a deep, slow kiss. Squeezed their joined hands on the table because this was real. This was happening. _They_ were happening.

The doorbell ringing startled them apart, and Harry chuckled. It took Louis a second to recollect his senses. Right. That would be the delivery guy. _Just the perfect timing, as always._

Louis got up, but not before pressing a kiss to Harry's left dimple. "Would you turn the telly on while I get the food?" 

"'Course."

His warm, happy gaze followed Louis out.

They settled on the couch with their dinner and glasses of wine. Harry had put on some reruns of Fleabag, which captured only half of Louis’ attention.

Sitting there, Louis was sent back to their uni days, when they would order cheap takeaway and binge Big Bang Theory in their tiny dorm. The moment was reminiscent in more ways than one. Back then, Louis was a kid with huge aspirations and not much else. A lot of times, he had had no idea where to go next, or what to do. For that kid, being where Louis was right now would be a dream come true. 

Because now, he had fulfilled all those aspirations, had everything he’d wanted. But nothing had played out the way he had imagined. Where were they gonna go from here? What was gonna happen?

He felt a bit lost again.

"Louis?"

He blinked. "Huh?"

"I was saying— nevermind." Harry put his plate on the table and turned his body towards him. "You’re thinking about some stupid shit, aren’t you? What is it?"

Louis opened his mouth to deny it and apologise for not paying attention, but Harry’s knowing smile made him pause. He sighed instead, playing with the noodles going cold on his plate.

"Things don’t look very favourable right now, do they?" Louis began, swallowing the lump in throat. 

"How do you mean?"

"I mean with our project." Louis put away his plate too, twisting to face the other man. "They’re gonna ask us for a report. What will we say we found there? How are we gonna convince the board for another run when the GPS is so unreliable? We barely made it back, who would even agree to go?"

Harry’s forehead wrinkled in a frown with Louis’ words. "You’re being pessimistic again."

"No, H, you can’t deny it." Louis pressed on. "Why do you think we couldn’t find a way to contact anyone? Why do you think we were living there? It all seems deliberate to me. I have a horrible feeling that something is gonna happen and they’re gonna shut the project down and we all will have to go into hiding."

Maybe it was a little dramatic, but it was the only way everything made sense to him.

"Is it you speaking, or your fears?" Harry asked, and Louis… didn’t have an answer to that. "Louis, we’re tired and overwhelmed, not thinking clearly. We can work these things out later. And then if you decide you want another run, I’ll stand with you. Hell, if you want, _I’d_ do it again. All I’m saying is it’s too early to worry about that. We’ll cross that bridge when, and _if_ , we come to it. Okay?"

Christ. Harry was so fucking sweet and so fucking right. But it was still a bitter pill to swallow. His confidence had never let him consider the undesirable possibilities, and it was hard for him to make peace with them now.

"Yeah, you’re right." Louis nodded, dropping his gaze with a sad smile. "It’s just that… this was supposed to be my legacy, H. I was gonna work on it my whole life, if that's what it took."

"I know, Lou. I know how much this meant to you, but it couldn't have meant _everything_ , could it?"

There was more to life than the machine, Louis had had a lot of people remind him time and time again. But he had always been so engrossed in it, he hadn’t been able to look past it. He had a few hobbies and retirement plans, of course, but he was not prepared to retire in his early thirties.

 _Fuck’s sake. Get a grip, Tomlinson._ Life hadn’t, and wouldn’t, come to a stand still, but for a terrifying moment, the fear of it had gripped him. He had (possibly, he couldn’t be sure) lost something very important to him, but he had found something too. Something more important and dear. The best he could do was hold on to it.

So, he shook his head as an answer, before launching forward and crashing into Harry. The man tumbled backwards on the couch with an audible ‘oof’ as Louis wound his arms about his torso and buried his face against chest. Harry laughed softly and wrapped his arms around him, dropping kisses into his hair.

They shifted into a more comfortable arrangement—Harry laying down with his head on the armrest, Louis on top of him, cheek pressed to his heart, and their legs entangled. Louis tried his best to stay focused on the show and Harry’s comments, but there was one final qualm in his mind. One that returned frequently, no matter how hard he tried to fight it off.

He murmured it into Harry's shirt, half hoping it was too low for him to hear. "Was it always a dumb idea?"

"No, baby. It was brilliant," Harry reassured quickly, tilting Louis’ face up by his chin and pressing a kiss to his lips. "Let’s not think about it tonight, yeah?"

Louis had spent years trying to ignore any and all of his feelings for Harry and focus on the machine. He figured he could do the opposite for a night.

Half an hour later, Louis was starting to doze off on Harry’s shoulder. Harry wasn’t much better, and they decided to just call it a day. It was only a little over nine in the evening, but they had survived days in the span of minutes. No one was stopping them from going to bed.

Despite Louis’ protests, Harry insisted on washing up the few utensils they had used. Giving in, he made himself useful by collecting the trash and discarding it. With a yawn, he hopped onto the counter beside the sink, where Harry was working, and started drying the dishes. It was domestic like never before. It was nice.

Harry dried his hands while Louis wiped the last plate clean and put it away. They were silent as Harry stepped between Louis' legs, small matching smiles on their faces. 

"Would you ever consider growing a beard?" Louis asked, admiring the planes of his face and sliding his hands up to his shoulders.

Harry laughed. "Liked that, didn't you? Should I be jealous?"

Louis shrugged. He had no idea how to feel about their encounter with their futures. He knew how he felt about the beard, though. "How'd you know I liked it? I could be asking you not to grow one."

"But you're not, are you." It wasn't even a question. "I noticed how you were looking at him. At me. Whatever."

"Doesn't mean I don't absolutely love this pretty face of yours, yeah? But with the beard you looked more… more like a _Daddy_." Harry guffawed at the term, his eyebrows shooting up. Louis smirked. "Or will look. Whatever."

"I liked the fringe on you too." Harry's gaze was soft and fond as it ran over his face. "Made me wanna cuddle you."

Louis tickled the back of his knee with his toes. "What’s stopping you, then, boyfriend?"

Harry beamed, both of his dimples popping. He made a happy noise in the back of his throat as he pulled Louis into a hug. Louis couldn't hold back a smile himself, pressing his face against Harry's neck and wrapping his arms so tight around him that he could reach his own elbows.

"Lou." Harry sighed out, and the simple word was so laden Louis wondered if he had meant to say it out loud at all.

"Yeah, love," He murmured back nonetheless, dropping a kiss to the junction of his neck and shoulder.

After a beat, he got a kiss back. With a tiny giggle, he pecked a spot above the previous one, and Harry copied his action. They exchanged a kiss for a kiss until they reached each other’s mouths, and Harry pressed them together.

It was fluid and unhurried, the way they moved against each other. Louis brought one hand up to bury his fingers in Harry's curls, and Harry tilted his head as his tongue slipped past Louis' lips. It sent shivers down his spine and sparked a fire in his belly.

Harry pulled away suddenly, taking in a ragged breath. He kept his face close to Louis' and his voice low as he mumbled, "Fuck, I'm getting emotional again."

Louis huffed. "Harold, I'm getting hard again."

The man laughed, even as his eyes darkened and the atmosphere of the room shifted. Any trace of sleepiness evaporated. He crowded closer, gaze falling to Louis’ mouth. "Yeah?" 

There was caution in his deep voice, an ‘are you sure?’ Because this would change everything. If they did this, there would be no going back.

Maybe it was too soon. Maybe their relationship was too fresh to take this step. But they both wanted this. Nothing else mattered.

"Yeah." With that, he pulled Harry back in. 

This time their lips collided and their teeth clacked together. Harry sucked on Louis’ tongue and Louis slid his hands up the back of Harry’s shirt. The strong muscles rippled under his palm. He dug his nail in the soft, warm skin, making Harry groan and rock against him.

"Get this _off_." Louis rucked the piece of cloth up Harry’s body, and Harry leaned back to take it off completely. Before it had even hit the kitchen floor, Harry was tugging Louis’ shirt off.

He tossed it away too, wasting no time in grabbing Louis’ hips and pulling him flush against himself. Their chests rose and fell together, hips rutting unevenly until they could feel each other’s arousal through their pants. Harry’s hands left a trail of searing heat on his exposed skin wherever they went. Louis wanted to burn in that heat.

Harry mouthed down to his neck, sucking and biting greedily. Louis tilted his head to the side while Harry's hand glided down his arched back to settle just above his ass.

His lips left his skin with a wet kiss, before he straightened up. "What do you want?"

Louis licked his lips, gazing at Harry's dark eyes and blood red lips, running his hands down his defined torso. He knew exactly what he wanted.

"Fuck me," He whispered. "Want you to fuck me like we saw."

He hadn't stopped thinking about it ever since the incident. Wanted it more than anything.

Harry groaned, pressing their foreheads together. "Christ, Lou. Been wanting that for forever."

They could’ve been doing that all these years, if only Louis hadn’t been such an idiot. But he wasn’t gonna waste the present moment dwelling on that.

"C'mon, H." Louis nosed behind his ear, nibbling on the lobe. "The bedroom, let's go."

Nodding quickly, Harry wrapped Louis’ legs around his waist and Louis locked his ankles. His hands slipped under Louis’ thighs, and in a swift motion, Harry picked him up and off the counter.

Adjusting his grip as he walked down the hallway, Harry smirked at him. “Is this the way you imagined me picking you up?”

“Well.” Louis couldn't help but gulp, a hand wrapped around his bulging bicep. “It’s one of them.”

The moonlight from the French window washed the bedroom in blue and white and glitter. Harry didn't stop to turn on any lights, making a beeline for the bed. But instead of putting Louis on it, Harry sat down. Louis pulled back, straddling his lap and cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"Don't wanna rush this," Harry explained, sucking a mark on his throat. 

Louis let out a broken sigh, letting Harry run his hands all over his torso. His mouth followed, kissing across his collarbones and over his thudding heart. While he was enjoying the treatment, Louis wanted more, and soon. He tangled his fingers in his hair, and tilted Harry’s face up. He leaned in to let their lips glide over each other’s, his other hand pushing at Harry’s chest until he fell backwards.

They parted with a smacking sound. "Lose your pants, babe, and lay on your back." 

Harry nodded eagerly, and Louis got off the bed. He pushed his thumbs in the waistband of his own sweats and boxers, stumbling out of them both on his way to the bedside drawer to fetch the bottle of lube and a condom.

When he climbed back on, Harry was laying in the middle of the mattress in all his naked glory. The moonlight painted him in a magical glow. It left Louis breathless, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away as he straddled him again, dropping the items in his hand beside him.

He wasn't a firm believer in God, but in that moment, he thanked Him for the sight in front of him. Harry was perfect. From his lovely thick curls spread around his head, flawless face, his broad shoulders, firm chest and narrow waist, his muscled arms and long fingers, to his strong legs, he was perfect. There was no other way to describe him. 

Harry seemed to be just as starstruck. He trailed his hands over Louis’ thighs, from his hips to his knees and back again. His half-lidded eyes roamed all over Louis’ form like _he_ was the masterpiece in the room. While Louis disagreed, the desire in his gaze made him flush all the way to his chest.

He had seen Harry shirtless countless times, and completely bare too, on occasions. It was kind of inevitable when you've been friends for more than a decade and have lived together. But he'd never been allowed to look and admire and touch and worship like he was now. And that’s exactly what he planned to do.

Louis began with a kiss to Harry’s forehead, which had his eyes fluttering shut with a smile. He kissed over his eyelids, the high points of his cheekbones and the tip of his nose. After a couple of pecks to each of his cheeks, Louis joined their lips in a soft kiss. 

He moved lower before it could grow heated. Kissed a trail down his neck, leaving marks in his wake, and across his collarbones to his arm. Harry twitched at the sensation when Louis licked and bit his inner arm, the soft skin breaking easily under Louis’ mouth. He dragged his lips down to Harry’s hand, kissed his palm before Harry cupped his face and brought him back up.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, smiling into the kiss.

His tongue darted out to part Louis’ lips but Louis pulled back. "Appreciating you."

 _Drinking you in._ _Memorising the taste of your skin._

Before Harry could respond, Louis had sucked his nipple into his mouth. He heard the man gasp above him as he teased the bud with a gentle pressure from his teeth. He slid his hands down Harry’s sides, fingers fitting between his ribs and thumbs finding the extra set of nipples. He kissed the smaller nips too before working his way down Harry’s heaving abs. Sucked a bruise just below his belly button.

Instead of going for his cock, where Louis knew Harry needed him, he dipped his head between his legs. He took his time kissing his lush inner thighs, sucking mark after mark into the warm flesh.

"Lou— ah. Please. Need you to touch me." 

And such a sweet request, Louis couldn’t deny. With a smirk, he lifted himself back up. Harry’s cock laid against his stomach, pink, long and thick, _hard_. A part of him wanted to put Harry out of his misery and take him deep into his mouth, but he had a pattern going on here. So he only peppered featherlight kisses up his length, barely there touches of his lips that left Harry breathless. 

"Next time," Harry panted. "I’m kissing you all over too. See how _you_ like it."

Louis’ heart skipped a beat at the words ‘next time’. Harry's threat sounded more like a promise. He laughed against his hip, pecking the bone. "Whatever you want, love."

Finally taking Harry in his hand, he pressed one last kiss directly to his tip. The bead of precome got smeared on his lips, and he made sure Harry was looking straight at him as he licked them clean. Harry dropped his head into the pillows with a curse, then cursed louder when Louis wrapped his lips around the head.

Giving head was a lot higher on his list of things he loved than it probably should be. After suckling softly on the head and lapping at the slit every few seconds, Louis started taking more of Harry in his mouth inch by inch. He loved the weight of his cock on his tongue, the warmth, and the slightly salty, slightly bitter taste. He went down on him until the head hit the back of his throat, and then swallowed around him, which, okay, was a show off of his negligible gag reflex.

"Shit, Lou." He flicked his eyes up to find Harry watching him, gaze fixed on Louis’ lips. "You’re too fucking good at this."

If Louis didn’t have his mouth full, he’d have smirked. He hummed instead, beginning to pump the rest of his dick with dry, slow strokes of his hand. Harry groaned at that, and tangled his fingers in Louis’ hair. He didn’t pull him up or force him further down, just held on, like that's what he needed. 

Louis tightened his lips as he pulled back. Harry’s cock was shining with his saliva now, and he licked wet stripes from the base to the tip to ease the glide of his hand even more. Maintaining the intense eye contact, he licked up the veiny underside of his dick before taking him properly into his mouth again.

He began bobbing his head up and down slowly, letting Harry enjoy the warmth of his mouth. He let his tongue swirl all around him, collecting every drop of precome that dribbled out of his slit. His hand moved in sync with his mouth, even as he gradually increased the pace. Hollowing his cheeks, he sucked hard, and Harry moaned out his name.

He alternated between suckling on the tip and taking him in deep, never letting him get used to one sensation. The muscles of his arm burned a little but he didn’t stop stroking him. Harry’s stream of moans and grunts made it worth it.

Louis continued his ministrations until saliva was dripping down his chin, his eyes were watering, and Harry’s hips were jerking with the urge to buck up into his mouth. He didn’t even try to stop him. 

Instead, it was Harry who interrupted his motions. "Fuck, baby, stop. Don’t want to finish yet."

There was a sweet, dull ache in his jaw as he pulled himself up. He wiped his lips on the back of his hand, smirking. "That good?"

"Yes," Harry said simply, tugging Louis into a feverish kiss. He took him by surprise when he flipped him onto his back, without breaking the kiss. When he let up, it was with an expression all too innocent for what he was about to ask. "Can I eat you out?"

Louis let out a breathy chuckle. This was his life now. "Yeah. Yes, please."

Harry sat back, giving Louis space to turn onto his stomach. Louis folded his arms and rested his head on them as Harry gazed at him.

"Fuck me," Harry murmured, voice awed. Louis felt his fingertips caress the skin of his back. "You’re incredibly gorgeous, you know that?"

Blushing, Louis hid his smile against his arm. It was the first time Harry had complimented him with so much plain _want_ in his voice. "You talking to me or my bum, Styles?"

"Both, I guess." Harry snickered lightly, draping his body over his and mouthing at his neck. His hard length pressed into Louis’ ass, and they both grinded against each other with a moan. 

All the arousal rushed back to him with the motion. "H. C’mon, open me up."

Harry’s hot breath fanned against his cheek and his smiling lips pressed against his ear. "Bossy much?"

Before he could show him exactly how bossy he could be, Harry was complying. He made his way down his back, kissing along the dip of his spine and sliding big hands down his sides. Louis' breath caught when Harry's lips reached the curve of his ass and he dipped his thumbs between his cheeks.

Harry spread him open, revealing Louis' hole. Twisting his body, Louis watched him lean down and kiss the puckered ring, felt him lick a wide stripe over it, slow and wet. He gasped, the muscles of his belly quivering.

"Used to dream about this, you know," Harry’s lips brushed against his left cheek, and his eyes flickered up to meet Louis'. "About you."

It was ridiculous how gone for one another they had been and yet so oblivious. He was surprisingly grateful for the shit show that had been their last night and day in the future. He couldn't imagine going without Harry for the rest of his life.

"Not a dream anymore." Louis smiled at him over his shoulder. “I’m yours.”

Harry looked euphoric at that. He shifted a little on his spot, adjusting his grip on Louis’ bum and diving back in with fervour.

The first few licks of his tongue had Louis dropping his head on the pillows. Harry was gentle and deliberate, flattening his tongue over Louis’ hole repeatedly until his body relaxed. Pulling back, he blew cold air on the wet skin. The contrast in temperature was sharp and sudden, but Harry’s warm lips were back on him before he could do so much as gasp.

A whine built up in Louis’ throat as Harry bit and sucked softly on his ring, working to get it loose. He pointed his tongue and traced the rim with the tip, and a second later, the wet muscle slipped inside.

Harry started licking into him eagerly. His skillful tongue pushed at his walls, trying to reach deeper every time. Louis couldn’t stop himself from grinding back against his face and rutting into the mattress. His neglected cock ached, needing the friction. 

He almost didn’t notice one of Harry’s fingers teasing up his perineum until it slipped in beside his tongue. Louis’ lips parted with a moan. "Oh my god. Harry, yes."

Harry hummed, pleased with the reaction. His digit was starting to stretch Louis’ rim as he pumped it in and out slowly. It had grown dirty and wet, Harry’s spit trickling down to his balls. Louis was writhing from the overload of sensations but still craved more at the same time. He wanted to pin Harry down and ride his face. Wanted him to split him open. Wanted him in a million different ways. And he knew Harry wouldn’t deny him, would let him take whatever he wanted like he was doing now.

"Another, babe.” Louis was panting by now. “Please."

With a warm exhale against his skin, Harry pulled away. Louis heard the lube bottle click open, and seconds later, two slick fingertips were pushing against his hole. Harry kissed small of his back, dipping his tongue into the dimples there to distract him from sudden stretch of two of his thick fingers entering him.

Louis moaned, pushing back, but Harry gripped his hips to hold him still, shushing him. He was careful as he began scissoring his fingers, never letting the pleasure turn into pain. Louis’ walls loosened until Harry was brushing his prostate with his fingertips. 

But it wasn’t enough, not with how desperate Louis was. "Fucking hell, I knew you'd be a tease in bed."

"I’m a tease?" Harry crooked his fingers, pressing directly into Louis’ spot for half a second and making him jolt. "You spent literal ages before putting your mouth on me and _I’m_ the tease here?" 

Was this some kind of cruel, unfair payback? Louis squirmed impatiently. "God, you're horrible, Harry. Is this the way you treat your incredibly gorgeous boyfriend?"

Harry laughed, removing even his fingers. And that was just the opposite of what Louis had wanted. He was ready to protest, or apologise and beg if need be. 

But before he could, Harry patted his bum. "Turn over, then, my gorgeous boyfriend."

With a pleased smile, Louis flipped over onto his back, while Harry tore open the packet of the condom. He rolled it down his length and lubed himself up.

His grin had softened to a serious smile by the time he lined up. "Ready?"

Louis had been ready for a decade. "Yes."

Harry’s tip breached the ring of muscle and Louis threw an arm over his eyes with a groan.

"Hey, no." Harry wrapped his fingers around his wrist and pulled his arm away. "Let me look at you."

So Louis let him look, and gazed back at him even though it made his heart clench almost painfully in his chest. Harry looked stunning above him. His eyes were bright, flush resting high on his cheeks and perspiration shining on the tip of his nose. Louis couldn’t… he was so lost in everything Harry, he couldn’t think.

All air was knocked out from his lungs when Harry pushed in the rest of the way, bottoming out. Louis was so worked up from the rimming, he was surprised he didn’t come right then and there.

"Holy shit. Lou." Harry moaned, dropping his head into his neck like he couldn’t hold himself up. "You feel so good, baby."

“It’s you.” Louis’ hands fluttered from his hair to his shoulders to his back. “You’re amazing, Harry.”

Harry shuddered feebly before he started moving. Just like before, he began slowly, rocking his hips in a way that could only be described as gentle. As soon as he’d adjusted, Louis whined for more. Harry chuckled breathily, pressed a kiss to his cheek as he increased the pace. Everything was overwhelming, and this time, he had to shut his eyes against it all.

Louis had always liked sex. The high that one could physically achieve was addictive. But it had always been just that, physical. With emotions involved, it was something otherworldly. Every tender caress of Harry's fingers, every warm press of lips against skin, every look that passed between them came from a place of raw feelings and pleased more than just his body. He definitely liked this better.

Harry slipped his arms under his legs and pushed them up, so Louis was folded in half as he fucked him. With the new angle, Harry was slamming right into his prostate. Louis’ toes curled, and tiny 'ah, ah's escaped him with every thrust of Harry’s hips. It was difficult, given his position, but he tried to push back against Harry to get him even deeper.

"Fuck, Harry." He threw his head back. "I think I’m— I’m gonna—"

"Let go, Lou." Harry grunted, redoubling his efforts. "Come for me."

Somehow, Louis slipped a hand to his cock and pressed his thumb against his slit. His body tensed as he toppled over the edge. He spurted ribbons of white between their bodies and his eyes rolled back in his head, all the while Harry fucked him through it.

With a loud moan of his name, Harry released his load inside Louis, hips snapping sloppily as the waves of pleasure pulled him under. Louis couldn't look away from his flushed face and parted lips. He didn't want to.

When he came down from his high, Harry let Louis' legs fall to the sides, and collapsed on him. Louis wrapped his arms around his shoulders, holding him and combing his fingers through his hair as they caught their breaths together. Harry was a firm weight on his chest, but Louis had never breathed easier.

After a few minutes, Harry leaned up as he pulled out carefully, his face hovering directly above Louis'. His freshly washed curls, framing the sides of his face, hung down to brush Louis' cheeks and imprisoned them in a bubble of sweet vanilla. There was a little mischievous and a lot happy smile on his lips.

He scrunched up his nose at the tickling sensation, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear and out of the way. Harry's grin widened and he tilted his head, making another strand fall into Louis' eye.

"Oi!" Louis grabbed his hair and Harry giggled at his indignant expression as he tried to hold it all back, away from his face.

The sound made fondness wash over him. He smiled, pulling Harry down to press their mouths together. It was a soft, lush kiss, their bruised lips moving gently against each other. Harry's curls were still damp at the roots, beneath Louis' fingertips, but his cheeks were warm under his palms. 

Harry sucked softly at Louis' bottom lip before breaking the kiss. With a peck high on his cheekbone, he rolled off Louis, getting rid of the used condom before landing on his back beside him. Their forearms brushed as they let their bodies cool.

For a while, Louis lost himself in the contentment of the moment, blinking lazily at the ceiling, not thinking about anything in particular. He was pulled from his daze by Harry's bigger hand slipping into his. Smiling to himself, he laced their fingers together.

He dropped his eyes to their intertwined hands between their thighs, slowly dragging his gaze up Harry's body. Harry's other hand rested on his hip, scratching mindlessly near his belly button. With every breath, his chest rose and fell, the skin littered with marks from Louis' mouth. His head was turned to face Louis. A small smile adorned his kiss swollen lips, his eyes so soft and deep and _green_ as they met Louis'. 

All breath rushed out from his lungs. He felt so much at that moment. He felt warm and happy. And safe, and relieved. He felt love.

Fuck, Louis was _in love_ with Harry. Of course he'd always loved him, but he hadn't let himself think of it as something other than platonic love. His attraction towards him had always been blamed on Harry being an insanely beautiful man. Louis had never let the two mix, just so he could make sense of his feelings and not make things awkward with his best friend. That had been a mistake, though, because the two went together. Louis loved Harry, and he wanted everything with him.

The idea was not as groundbreaking as he'd feared. Maybe he had known it subconsciously, but in the madness of their adventure, it hadn't completely registered, and he hadn't had a chance to tell him. And that just wouldn't do; Harry needed to know. 

"Hey H?"

"Hmm?" Harry's gaze was far away even as it never strayed from Louis' face.

Louis shuffled closer. "Would it be too soon to say that I'm in love with you?"

The words snapped Harry out of his thoughts, a huge grin taking over his features. He glowed with it, and Louis was nearly convinced that it was moonshine seeping out of his pores. Harry rolled onto his side to get closer still. "I don't think so. Rather, I feel it's a few years overdue."

He pursed his lips, trying to control the giddiness in his stomach. Turning on his side to mirror Harry's position, he whispered with a secretive smile, "If that's the case, then, I love you."

Louis didn't know if it was the low light playing tricks on his eyes or if Harry actually teared up a little. "I love you too."

A beat passed where they just stared at each other, before both of them were fumbling clumsily in their desperation to get as close as possible. Louis slipped an arm under Harry’s head, and the other over his shoulders, while Harry held him around his waist and tangled their legs. There was barely any air between them, barely any place where they weren’t touching. 

Louis sighed into Harry’s hair as he— _his boyfriend_ —nosed along his jaw. They began talking in hushed voices, because they had so much to talk about that it was overflowing. Their story from each other's point of view. All the years spent with each other but apart. The three minutes, or fifty-one hours that had broken them and put them together better than before. The future that awaited them.

It didn’t look exceptionally good. He knew that the experiment had only been the beginning, that there were hard times coming their way. They had to obtain the antenna from the lab. They had to answer the directorate, their friends and families, the world. But with Harry in his arms, Louis felt invincible again.

He understood what his future self had said, then, and why. Whatever happened, they’d be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *stares off into space with hair flying in every direction, dark circles under her eyes and looking half dead* i have no idea what the fuck just happened.
> 
> This fic was based on prompt number 163: Louis and Harry build a time machine and travel to the future. There, they meet a kid who immediately recognises them as his parents. Major awkwardness ensues.
> 
> I didn't have enough braincells to write this tbh. If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much. I don’t know how I did. But here we are and I’m kinda proud. Here is the fic [post](https://loustarlight.tumblr.com/post/639683486104666112/since-the-future) and [tweet](https://twitter.com/IwtstarIight/status/1347271792092712961?s=20) if you wanna reblog/retweet. And I’d absolutely love it if you come and talk to me. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the collection! 
> 
> Have a good day and tpwk x


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